The Wreck of the s.s. Taiaroa.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1821, 16 April 1886, Page 3

The Wreck of the s.s. Taiaroa.

John ICeQoarter, in bis narrative of the aveota on the night of the wreck says—The women were ail dressed except the youngest, who wae a Salvation Army Leas, of about 25. who had nothing on but a ehemiae. Ail four won lifebelt*. It wae quite light, and 1 could aee the billa bat not the beech. A heavy sea capsized the boat after we attached her to the stern of the steamer with a line. The women kept ap well for a long time, but one after another threw np their hands and sank from exhaustion in the bitter eold. As I swam past them one woman tried to elntch me, bat I eluded her, and together with twelve others succeeded in getting into another boat which was floating keel up. The boat righted itself, notwithstanding the heavy sea, and I found all we had wag a broken oar. My aompunions seemed terribly d pressed and exhausted, and when the boat went over again five went under, aud never came np again, leaving the second mate, live seamen and myself. These five groaned feaifully, and lay in the bottom ef the boat, one after another gurgling <n the throat and eying. The second mate was very weak also, but helped me to throw the dead men overboard, aa their bodies and upturned faces washing from one aide of the boat to the other greatly distressed and obstructed ns. The second mate tai d, just as day was breaking, " It's no food ; 1 can't keep np any longer,” aud by the time the boat grated on the boulders of the baaeb and went ashore he also was dead. 1 managed to crawl out of the boat and up a sandy week toward the hills, and was making for a light when a man met me and took me h* a trap to Eekerangu station. 1 consider that the night was not too dark to prevent the captain seeing where he was, and I believe everybody might have been saved had they ■warn straight ashore. Graven have been prepared for the drowned at Kakerango, as there is no means of conveying the bodies to Blenheim, a distance of 66 mile* over a rough country. It ia said by those knowing the coast and eonenta that a very strong current sets from Clarence Point into Kekerangu bight, and out again past Capa Campbell. If, therefore, after paaaing Cape Campbell and so escaping th# strength of the current, the yeeeel got inside the current say off this spot, aud then <M|ht lha strength of the current again on the port bow aa it earns round Clarence Point, it eronld set bar into the spot wbste *hs now list. This seems a eery reasonable «*Pj«ntton of the catastrophe. There is no fr«h news of any importance.