A Scow Wrecked.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXIII, Issue 4052, 29 July 1907, Page 2

A Scow Wrecked.

SOLE SURVIVOR’S STORY,

Auckland, July 26, ! Harry Jackson, the sole survivor of the wreck of the scow Surprise, in relating his experiences said : “ When off Slipper Island on Friday night the scow started to drag, with three anchors out, and the captain ordered the crew to set the staysail. Immediately afterwards she struck on the south end of the Watchman Rocks. The captain sang out‘Goodbye ’ and that was the last I saw of him and the boy, Frank Kelly. The scow was bumping very hard when Alf. Stewart, Edward Johnsen and I took to the fore rigging. We stayed there a little time, and then came down and went aft. The ship came stern first off the rocks and capsized. I lost sight of Stewart and never saw him again. Johnsen and I stuck to the main rigging, after which the scow drifted midway between the Watchman and the coast. I swam ashore, but never saw Johnsen again. I am a good swimmer, but the breakers were very large and rough. One breaker took me ashore, and others came immediately after and smashed me on the rocks. That was how I was so much cut and bruised. I had been in the water for five or six hours. I climbed about half way up the cliffs and then collapsed from exhaustion, and stayed there the whole of Sunday, and at night felt ill and unable to go further. Next morning, feeling a little better, I crawled over the cliffs and event-

ually reached J. McGregor’s house,

where I received every kindness, being put to bed and carefully nursed. My position on Sunday was terrible. It was a wild, stormy day. and I was stuck half way up the cliffs with only a small singlet on reaching to my thighs. I was unable to move further. The cliffs were below me, and high perpendicular hills above. I thought I was done for. I lay there in the storm all Sunday, and in the night the pain was so severe and unbearable that I wished I was dead. The weather appeared better on Monday morning, and having gained a little extra strength, I started to crawl along, not knowing exactly where I was.” A Tairua message states that the steamer Onslow visited the scene of the wreck of the scow Surprise again yesterday. Constable Brown and parly searched the beaches but could find no bodies. They secured a flag, some boards of a steamer, called at Obui and brought Harry Jackson, sole survivor, to Tairua. He ia still weak. As showing the fury of the storm dozens of crayfish and dead fish were thrown up on the beach, also tone of seaweed. The ship’s dog was found lying on the Pawauui beach.