IN A DRIFTING BOAT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12567, 14 September 1908, Page 5

IN A DRIFTING BOAT.

Story of Shipwreck and

Adventure

A Boy's Imagination

Alfred Straschitz, 15 years of age, who was picked up on the beach at Mornington (Victoria), on the 3rd inst. in a drifting^ boat, told a story of shipwreck and adventure which shows the possession of an imagination that may yet make him a Captain Marryatt. In accounting for his plight the boy, who is a German, told the Mornington police that he had been wrecked on a ship called the Wangard, commanded by Captain Zimmerman, 16 days ago in Bass Straits. Four boats, the boy stated, left the sinking ship, on which there was a crew of 21, and he was of a party of four in one of the boats. Tempestuous weather continued after the wreck, Straschitz proceeded, and the boats were soon separated. He lost his companions one by one. Eventually he found himself in Port Phillip, explaining that he must have been blown through the Heads during the night. Then he drifted across to Mornington, where his boat was beached.

The boy'a appearance did not support his extraordinary recital, for he showed no traces of privation. He explained that he had plenty of biscuits to eat, but little fresh water. When the story was reported to Mr C. W. Maclean, engineer for ports and harbours, he at once expressed the opinion that it was for the most part a concoction, a drift across from Williamstown being the full extent of the boy's advenuture.

It was ascertained that Straschitz was put on board the steamer Wangard, lying off Port Melbourne, a few days ago by the German Consul to be conveyed to Newcastle in charge of the master, Captain Herman-Bruhn. He had evidently objected to going to Newcastle, and on Wednesday he slipped over the stern of the vessel, which was anchored in the bay, and got into one of the boats. He then cut the painter and let himself adrift on the bay. Captain Bruhn expressed fears ibr the boy's safety, as the weather wae boister4>UB, and he felt sure the boy could not manage the boat. The lad must have got away some time before those on board missed him or the boat, as there was no sign of Mm anywhere on. the' bay when his departure was ascertained.

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