LIVED ON ROOTS AND SHELLFISH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18451, 30 April 1928, Page 11

LIVED ON ROOTS AND SHELLFISH.

WRECKED FISHERMAN HAS EIGHT DAYS OF TERRIBLE HARDSHIPS. Per Press Association. NELSON, April 28. Tardy news of the wreck of the fishing launch Konini, of Port Nelson, brings with it an account of the sufferings of the owner, Thomas Alec Boult, of Nelson, who was wrecked on the coast at Torrent Bay', fourteen miles from the nearest habitation. Mr Boult left Nelson a little more than a fortnight ago on a fishing expedition off the coast. Near Torrent Bay he struck very heavy weather, and was forced to anchor his boat. She lay tossed by heavy seas for eighteen hours, when the anchor line parted, having been worn through by constant chafing. The launch immcdiately broke up. Boult managed to struggle clear, but suffered many severe cuts by being dashed against the rocks before he gained the beach. Ilis boots went down with the launch, and he was left with cut feet and no food. For some days he‘lived on shellfish and roots, occasionally finding a little fruit as he made slow progress along the coast, which is extremely rough in parts. He waited in an empty house for a day or two, hoping that some boat would come along, but he was disappointed, and forced to continue.

Rain fell most of the time, and he sheltered as best he could under overhanging rocks. The sufferer’s chief trouble was that he had nothing with which to dress his cuts, which had by now become painful sores. He eventually reached Mr E.. G. Hadfield’s place, at Awaiti, fourteen miles distant from the wreck, on the eighth day after setting out. Boult was considerably weakened by the absence of nutrition in the food he had been eating, and the strenuous time he had passed through. He is still at Awaiti, but is now doing well.