ANOTHER STORY OF THE WRECK.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 58, 2 December 1907, Page 8

ANOTHER STORY OF THE WRECK.

. TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES. ■ (BY : TELEGRAMI—rRESS . ASSOCIATION.) > BIUIT, ■'December .1.,'. Tho following .is the statement given by CharleS Eyre, A.B.y London, to Mr. Crosby Smith, wliile he was acting -iw. cook to the expedition party, on. Campbell Islands:^ " I signed on to.tho Du'mloiiald in Sydney,' the vessel-being :bouud for;: Falmouth for orders. Sho' was' laden with wheat. Wo had Contrary winds all tho wAy from Sydney, and when off the Auckland . Islands it ■ was blowing half a gale. The wbatlier on, tho night of March 6 was very thick and heavy, and we .wore'shortened down to upper topsail and' had set the lower' top-gallant'. Suddenly, at- 12.30 a.m. on the, 7th;., tend,.was .seen right ahead. We'firied to wear the, ship short round, biit she' 'would' not" 'stay. and- wont stern first into it crevice in thei cliffs. Orders v/ere given to clear the lifeboats, but it was, found to.be .useless, as there was' a big sea and rocks, all roifnd us. The o'ajit-ain ordered us to put on oiir lifebelts. The-.steward gave lip all hope 6f' saving' himself, 1 aiicl said. ' Good-bye; boys; I'm too old to get ashore. Ho' wont'' into his cabin, slint the door, and soon after corifpressed' air in the. hold blew up the deck. . ... " Th'e. matb' told us to get under tlic forecastle head; lis the ship might be dismasted; We were there two or, three minutes' when she started shipping seas just abreak.of the fo'c'sle. When we saw seas coming we. went oh the fo'c'sle head, but were not there j more than a couple of minutes when water | began to como right over. One tremendous seii' washed clean oyer'us'," arid' alth6ngh?we all managed to hang on',; tho noxt one washed lis all/away. >1' don't know what' became,, of the otlieis, • but I: was whirled'. round'. and round.. I caught- hold of the foot of the fo'c'sle, but was . instantly torii" away by the sea. 1 then caught , hold of one of the shrouds and. climbed.up. AsTdid'so I heard nomeono following me, and, looking back, saw it was an irishman named Jobn Judge.' Wo went on to the Jore topgallant-yard j as it was canted towards shore. We'thought it was touching the cliff, but found it to be about .sixteon feet away. 1 -We were going to try to swing asliore on the. end of .a rope, but found the rope was too short. -Unfortu--nately we had-dropped the only knife wo had and could not cut , another rope to lengthen it.■ - "Wo spent the night up theroj and heard many distressing cries around us. About an hour beforo daylight, • we began to ' climb down-to tho foretop, and found about twelve men there, including the first and second mates. Tho mate told us to preparei for the worst, as tho mast could not stand r.r-ch longer. He thought wo had better cut a fow lines,.'as wo might be ablo to help one another ashore. T had lost my knife, so tho mato gavo mo his, and I wont up again arid cut away somo of the running gear. Su;ldenly I hoard a voice from the shore opiposito, and found it. to be Michael Poolo, a Russian Finn. 1., cut-'one-of tho top-sail bunt lines, throw it to him, and wo m.idViiiit at . both ends. ' By this-moans wo all managed to get ashoro. Tho cliff was about ,SOO feet high,- and, at tho point just above the mast was a very steep slope, which allowed us to climb up with comparative ease. There were sixteen of us, out of twenty-eight, gol ashore, which left twolvo to bo account id for as drowned. They wero washed away ivlion tho big sea swept tho ship. I now learned that tno first man ashoro, Waller Juw, called out to pass a rope, but Imfoie this; could bo done no slipped over the chl)* into tho sea and was never seen again. IVo wero all very much exhausted when we get iishoro, being very hungry and cold." Eyro" also stated that when they eventually to the depots, they found only snip's biscuits and tinned moat, .no toa, butter, sugar, or coffee. They found the door of tho depot open, and it was evident that some of the stores nad been purloined...

The men, when roscued by tho Hinemoa, all appaaral well, nnd it was evident that the food thoy had subsisted on had agreed with thom. [The Dundonald was a stool fonr-mnstod barquo of 2235 tons register, classed 100 A 1 at Lloyds. She was built at Belfast'in 18JI1, and belonged to the Dundonald Shipping Co., Ltd. (Kerr, Nowton and Co.)]