LOSS OF THE MAITAI

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2969, 5 January 1917, Page 7

LOSS OF THE MAITAI

—'—• TOLL OP THE REEFS. : 'l'ho stranding of the Maitai, at ■ Rarotonga, adds another ship to the long list ol' vessels that have come to ■ grief ou the coral patches of the South . Seas. From Suva to Papeete, and l from Nukualofa to' Apia, the barrier s reefs are clotted with {.he bleaching 1 timbers and rusting iron of wrecks in- - numerable. The Tongan Group in paij ticular, is the resting place of many ' ships that have gone down to the sea. 1 At the entrance to Nukualofa har- ■ hour, the scarred sides of The Knight of St. George, are a prominent landi- mark,- -while " closer inshore are the F broken timbers of the four-masted . American schooner Borealis, thrown on | the reef in the hurricane of 1913. The ; remains of the Auckland ketch Lizzie Taylor strew the beach at Nonvuka, [ while farther north, on the reef around r a tiny island on the Vavau Group, the t timbers of the American ship T. S. . Alexander are still visible. In Haapai j harbour, the iron capstan ot a Nor--0 wegian barque is prominent above high g water mark. The battered stem of n another large ship lies on the ocean . reef at Tongataliu. 1 Primary causcs in most of tho wrecks have bceil" bad anchor holdings and mis- , taken . passages through tho _ barrier reels. At Apia, Samoa. the iron ribs g and rusting sides of the German gunboat Adler, thrown ashore at the time the Calliope steamed out to sea in a hurricane,- are still an attraction to the tourist. Between Suva and Levuka, on tho main reef, the smashed hull of a, largo ship lying close under a beacon ■ is silent testimony to the treacherous £ nature of tho sea thereabouts. Further j? south in tho Fiji Group arc the remains of the Pacilic Cable Board's auxiliary schooner Strathcona, wrecked on her g maiden voyage a short time ago. The J reefs around .Tahiti and Kaialea have J their complement of stranded t>uttei;s d and small schooners, while the toll of , r the coral patches about Pago Pago— ' American Samoa—has been heavy , among small craft. y The Cook Group has been perhaps . more free of wrecks than any otlior 1 portion of tho Eastern Pacific, probably » on account of throe being less ship- - ping in these waters, and tho long 0 distances between tho different islands. ? In groups like Tonga and the. Arclii--1 pelugo to the north new land is always £ in the process of formation, and the I base reefs extend considerable distances out to sea. It is in threading t the deep water passages between the r coral patches that ships mostly come ' to grief. Hurricanes have played their J part in tlic destruction, hut not to . any great extent, a recent wreck in thr Cook Group, and another at Tonga, being the only instances of late years. Tim "island of Rarotonga is surrounded > by s reef, but there are several small ' openings opposite the village, sites! Thn main anchorage is off Avarua. tin I principal settlement, and deep wntei extends to tho edge of the reef. Tim is where the Maitai came to grief. l