THE ABANDONED VESSEL.

Wanganui Chronicle, 1 February 1902, Page 3

THE ABANDONED VESSEL.

THE FIRST OFFICER'S STATEMENT.

CAPTAIN'S ORDERS WERE NOT

DEFIED

Mr David Murphy, the first officer of the Port Patrick, the ship that wis abandoned at Wilson's Promontory, on being asked whether he left the vessel in contravention of the orders of the master, sqid emphatically that he did not. So far as he knew the men did not go to the captainand ask him to abandon the vessel,1 and he got no word from thtT captain that he desired the bands to remain on board. Ever/one was in agreement about leaving the ship. , The second officer's statement corroborates that made by the mate. i A deputation of loud-voicedj angry sail-ors-entered the; "Daily Telegraph." office under a press of canvas. They wanted to "see the man who wrote that yam in the paper," they said, referring io the statement made by the captain of the Port Patrick. The charges made thereip against the members of the crew were falfe, they said, and they were desirous of contradicting them.

"The captain was a terror to crack on,'" said M_. W. Beer, an able-bolied seaman, ;who signed on at Cardiff foi the round voyage. "There was trouble between him and the last ina?>e^^^^Hjf^j over it before we got to Alf^^PPP^^^, i "Coming to thisipKving of the ship. We were down about ibe Promontory way, hanging about in any sort of wind that might be coming down "from anywhere, when the taptain comes in the dog watch and says 'Clew uj) the royals.' We hid them fast by eight bells, and a couple of minutes afterwards up comes the captain. 'Loose them royals,' he says, 'and iet the staysails,' and .in a, few minutes.sue was under all tho canvas she could spread, -the starboard watch was on deck. About ten o'clock the wind freshened. By eleven it was blowing a, howling gale. ; '"AH hands on deck,' was the order, and put tumbled the port watch. j'Lower away the halyards and «lew up everything,' says the mate, and we did what w* could to get the canvas off her."

"Make the sails fast?" asked the reporter. "Make them fast ?". repeated the sailor, in a tone which implied sympathy with the ignorance of tho questioner. "Make them fast —not much ; why, they blawed to pieces out of the clewlines.

' "The wind was about west-south-west, and howling through the rigging so as you couldn't hegr yourself speak., The ship had broached to, and was lying over to starboard and sagging'to leeward towards Cleft Island. , . ' ■

" 'Clear away tlie port lifeboat,' says the mate about midnight; and tlien there was orders to clear away the starboard boat. The covers were on them both and the falls ■were secured, but we soon had them all clear, and the boats lowered away level with the rail. We had let goithe'starboard anchor about 11 quarter to t*yelve, and a little later the port anchor, which was more difficult to handle, owing to. the list the ship had. She was about throe-quarters of <ii mile off the land when the'two anchors were down, but they couldn't hold her. and sho whs swept down almost on Cleft Island."

• "Now, the captain says that the men came aft and asked to leave in the boats," said ■the reporter. "He says that you were frightened to stay by the 'ship—is that right?" ■-■' ' , "As God is my judge, it is false," said Beer. "Aye," said the. others. "There was not one scared, not even the first-voyage apprentice. We would have stuck to* the shin till she went down; we would have stuck like Britishers. The crew never went aft at any time, and none of them.hud any conversation with the captain. Nothing was said from first to last to the captain about lpaving the ship, and as a matter of fact, Donovan, who, the captain says, was spokesman fov ihe crew, and asked him .to go in the boats. wa« the last man to leave the vessel's deck."

', "That doesn't agree with the c'ajvtain's Statement." said the reporter. ; "No, but it is true," said all the sailors together, ''The captain says he left the vessel last 5 why, he was fourth in the Jmat," declared Beer, and his companions confirmed his statement. "And as lor our clearing out, we did no such thing. We manned the boats and left the ship by orders. The. second mate gave the orders, jind he wouldn't have given them if the captain hadn't told him to. The captain was in the starboard boat, and at the tiller, before the boat was fully manned. i "Up to the time he entered the boat, the captain never left the poop. He just slid down the afterfall like the rest, of us. and tho second mate followed him:. That's all tot about him being the last to leave, and 111 hands can swear to it." I The interview with Beer 'was then read

over to the others, who endorsed it in Vigorous sailor-like language. ! Tho cook, Joseph Deville, stated that thero was no suspicion of panic on board the distressed ship. None of the crew, he added, requested the captain to abandon the ship. - ■ ■