The Wreck of the Wairarapa.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 118, 14 November 1894, Page 2

The Wreck of the Wairarapa.

CONTINUATION OF THE ENQUIRY. (FSB PRESS ASSOCIATION ) Auckland. Vovpjnhpr 12 C. A. M. Chapman deposed that on Sunday afternoon the passengers were uneasy, and a* he had a presentiment that something would happen he did not retire until nearly eleven o'clock. About twenty minutes before he asked the Captain whether he was going to stand on the course at that rate of speed all night. He replied " Yeß," quit© quietly, as if to shut him up. Mr Cotter: Did you see the chief officer when he landed on the rocks ? Witness : Yes, I helped him up. He was very weak; he looked worn out, and had no strength to get up on the rocks. You are quit© certain that the chief officer did not go up the rigging until after daylight ? I am quite certain. Where was he when you left to go ashore ? About two ratlines above me. Between him and the second officer poor Miss Williams was sitting. Sho had gone to sleep, and they were looking after her to sco that she did not fall. Could tho mate have done anything more than he did ? I don't think so. We were all alike in the rigging, and the man seemed numb. It was every man for himself. Owen Monaghan, Sydney, said he thought at once that it was a case. When he got on deck they were trying to lower two boats near whero he stood, but thoy were so slow with one that he d«spaired of them lowering it, and he crept over on his hands and knees to the other. Ho thought a sailor man wan superintending the latter boat. The ropes would not work very well, and knives wore called for to cut them. Dr Harris; in his evidence stated that he was on a raft with one of the sailors belonging to the Wairarapa. The lifeboat took off the sailor, but they had no desire to take him (Harris) on board but he insisted on it. So far as his knowledge went the crew were quite prepared to defend themselves in an? possible way ar d the p: oportion of the crew to passengers •aved would corroborate this statement. Dr H*rria highly praised the conduct of the stewards and stewardesses. Joseph L. Clarke, second officer, said tht captain never consulted the officers as to the ship 1 * course. He came on the bridge at midnight relieving the third officer. The log showed 145 miles run from the lime th« conm was altered near the North Cape. The night was thick and as ho could see nothing, and the vessel going at full speed be said to the captain " You have no business to go ahead like this, >ou ought to slow her and turn her round." Tho Captain replied •' Go to the other side of the deck, and look for the Mokohinau light, and turn the ventilators." I went there to look out and roared oul •• br«akers-a-head, " and simultaneously the ship struck. He previously had a conversation with Johnston and said " We ought to be somewhere about the He» and Chickens now." The Captain said •• What nonsense," That waa all, ana the first thing the Captain said was to get the boats out to him. The course marked on the chart in Court left some thirteen miles unaccounted for. Aocording to the log they should have been abreast of the Poor Knights between 9 or 10 p in. Had the steamer slowed when the log oauie in at 6 p.m. that would hate avoided tbo casualty. Alfred James French, a Royal marine, and one of tho steerage passengers, also gave evidence. Had the port quarter boat beeh lowered when it was ready, he thought at least eight or ten women who were afterwards drowned would have been saved. There seemed to be no one to give any orders whatever. The chief loss of life occurred after tho ship lurched, and if the passengers had been ordered to tako to tho rigging more might have been saved. The boy West clung to witness round the neck, and he managed to put a lifebolt on him. He was a brave little boy and gave no trouble, and Jolly looked after him when witness was washed away.

Auckland, November 13. The Union Steamship Company has received from the Sydney office a list of passengers who left Sydney by the Wai. rarapa, about as correct as it is possiblo make it. The following is the list of those lost : — Saloon— Mr and Mrs Hill, Mr and Mrs W. Scoullar, Mrs Leresque, Mrs Skews and three children, Mr and Mrs West and two children, Mrs Baldwin and child, Mrs H. Hollis, Mrs Brown aid two children, Mrs Fyfe, Mrs Manderson, Mis Bayward and two infants, Mrs Rhodes and infant, Mrs Ryan, Mrs Smith, Mr« M. Smith, Mrs Stewart, Mrs Waterhouse and child, Misses Arkle, Scoullar (2) Barton, Flavall, Glen, Knight, Bow' botham, Read, Sullivan, and Williams « Messrs A. Bray, J. Bowker, Chick, S. ?"X ckl %\P' Dl 7brough, Hottcke, A. Kelly, McKumon, L. Bunting, Warrv. T. Spencer, J. C. White, F. C. White Whafey, J. Talbofc, A. Mills, Rev. s! Mclvor, Steerage— Mr and Mrs T. Butler, Mr and Mrs Courtney and infant, Mrs Horbach, Mrs E. Martin, Mrs Rosmergy, Mrs G. Tucksworth, Miss A. M. Pitches; Messrs J. Bcregar, G.Bird,F.Bromwol)l J. Bailey, George Brown, G. Clark, M. Dickson, T. Davis, J. Donovan, A. Gor. don, P. Hcaroy, T. Hastie, T. C. How. land, W. Jobnstoue, G. Lyon, J. Lewis J. L. Mackay, James Meliciu, W. Maudeison, J. McKenzie, D. M. McMillan H. Sinclair, W. Stanley, and l\ Vomeke. The looai managor of the Union Com. pany has received the list of passengei H by the Wairarapa from Sydney and Melbourne. The list now made out from these and information from the ship's officers and survivors is as nearly ac» curate as possible to make it. The al. teration iv the previously - published lists is .-—Saved— Saloon : H. J. Chamberlain and G. Hardy ; steerage : D V* Roberts, Sow Wai, and Wong Jim aY ditional lost— Steerage : Mr and Mr* so™? h tv an f ohfld, Misso 8 Rosmergy (2 , F. Nichols Chine Wang, Joe SbuTe. Chan, John Cree, and J,, Dean (said to be on board by the fore-cabiS steward, but not on the Sydney and Melbourne lists). J Out of 117 mail haga shipped by the Wairarapa in Sydney 100 hay© been recovered,. «P1 Vl . , SYDSIiY, NOV. 13. The National Shipwreck's Society has cabled to the Mayor of Auckland expressing sympathy with the endeavour to relieve the sufferers by the loss of tbo Wairarapa, and Intimating that the society will relievo all the New South Wales passengers and relatives of seamen.