AMY TURNER TRAGEDY.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15245, 23 May 1923, Page 5

AMY TURNER TRAGEDY.

SURVIVORS REACH SYDNEY. EXTRACT FROM THE LOG. United Press Association. SYDNEY, May 22. The survivors of the Amy Turner have arrived. Elaborating the details previously cabled an extract from the log says: “The last seen of the wreck was several forms clinging to wreckage and crying piteously. We endeavoured to hold the boat so that they, could swim to it, but we were blown away, and all we can hope is that the end came quickly.” The survivors slate they suffered very severely from want of food and water during Lhcir 23 days’ drift in tiie open boat. « They were ill and weak when they landed at Mawish Island, and they slept all day on Hie beach. The natives treated them kindly and provided them with plenty of food, including sucking pig. On March 23 the Amy Turner, which sailed from Newcastle, N.SAV., with a cargo of coal on February 7, encountered a typhoon which swept the ship out of her course. For four days the vessel was buffeted by raging seas, and all her canvas was stripped. By March 26 she had floated close to Guam, but her distress signals were not noticed, and she drifted away again. The storm intensified, and reached its height on the morning of March 27. The Amy Turner was then badly battered. The crew worked the pumps desperately, but the vessel bejame waterlogged, and on March 27 they decided to abandon the ship. The crew prepared two small boats for launching, and askqd Captain Neilsen and his wife to join them, but the la tier refused. The crew then launched the boats. Three men got into one and eight into the other, which was larger. About noon a seam opened in the Amy Turner and she sank suddenly. Captain Neilsen and his wife were standing f hand in hand on llie poop deck as the vessel nose-dived, and they were not seen again.