THE DISASTER TO THE S.S. TARARUA.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2240, 3 May 1881, Page 3

THE DISASTER TO THE S.S. TARARUA.

FURTHER PARTICULARS Mr J. O. Eva’s untimely end will be regretted greatly by his numerous friends. As manager of the New Zealand Hardware Company Mr Eva was very well known, and in his large private circle of friends ho was valued for his gonial qualities and ability to entertain. He was greatly aided in this’direction by his musical knowledge, being an i strumentalislas well as a vocalist. In the latter capacity he took part in several concerts in times past, and always assumed the load in promoting the enjoyment of a social ovoninar party. Previous to the establishment of the Hardware Company be was in the employment of the old firm—Oliver and Ulph—for some 12 years. He was a native of Cornwall, and nephew to the Hon. E. Oliver, Minister for Public Works. At the time of the melancholy occurrence which has been the cause of his death he wag on his way to Melbourne to see his mother, who is dangerously ill. Ho leaves a widow and 2 children—a girl 13 years of his age by his first wife, and a boy of ten years by big present wife. A strange fact is that it occurred to him to make his will before ho started on his trip by the Tararua. Mr George Horan, one of the crow, wai a young man of 19 years of age, son of Colonel Horan, who took part in the Waikato war. Ho was a good scholar, having been educated at Helensborougb, but the sea had a peculiar charm for him, as with many other young men. This was his second voyage. Ho was very well liked, and his death will be lamented by several friends in Christchurch.

Mr Bailey, who wag a passenger to the Bluff, was going in the Tararua merely on a pleasure trip. We are informed that ho had obtained some employment in Dunedin, and told some of his friends that he would run down by steamer to the Bluff and come back overland before settling down to work. He accordingly took his passage and was lost. The Tararua was valued at £19.000, and we understand is insured for £14,000, £9OOO of which is insured in English offices, and the remainder as fo lows:—Now Zealand Insurance Office, £SOO ; New South Wales Marine, £SOO ; United, of Sydney, £500; Colonial (New Zealand), £3500. The lastnamed risk, however, is largely covered by reinsurances. There is also a policy for £SOO in some other office, the name of which we have not ascertained, while the Union Company themselves underwrite the vessel to the extent of £SOOO, Amongst the persons lost by the Tararua disaster were several from the Oamaru district. Their names have been given to us (“ North Otago Times”) as follows : —Messrs Hughes and wife, Mr Wilson and wife, Messrs M'Laren, M'Kenzie, Inglis, and Cook. The last, we believe, was on his way homo to take possession ot a sum of money that had been loft him. THE SCENE oF" THE WRECK. We take the following from the report telegraphed by the special correspondent of the “ Otago Daily Times WYNDHAM, May 1, 8 p.m. On the special train arriving from Dunedin atEdendslo shortly after two o’clock on this (Sunday) morning, the travellers were pleased to find that Mr Leslie, of Wyndham, had a coach in waiting to convey them to that place. The distance is over three miles. The coach had to make two journeys, landing all somewhere about four o’clock. It was at this time raining heavily, and was very dark. The question was how to get on towards the scene of the wreck, and eager inquiries were made os to the distance. The best authorities gave it as thirty-five miles, being twenty-five miles to Portrose township, at the Toi Tois, and ten miles from Portrose to the wreck, Mr Leslie agreed to provide coaches for all, and abont an hour before daylight a cavalcade of three coaches and two horsemen left Milne’s Hotel. The coaches contained -Messrs J. Maokay and A. Perguson (whoso cousin, Bainbr'dge, was on board the steamer), D. O. Cameron, and the Rev Buddie (interested in learning the fate of the Wesleyan clergymen from Christchurch), Mr Thompson, of the Criterion Hotel (whose waiter, named Bailey, had obtained three days’ leave of absence and gone for a trip to the Bluff in the boat), Mr Hardie, clothier (whose brother was returning to Melbourne), Mr G. West, Mr T. J. Leary, Mr James Gore (interested in Mr Eva), and Mr 8. Clayton, the Press representative, and a number of police. The horsemen were a mounted constable and your reporter, who had previously arranged to have a horse supplied. It was a fearfully miserable morning, during the first half of the journey to Portrose, the rain at times coming down in torrents. The horsemen had all the advantage of tbo coaches, as the roads were very bad, and after having been at the scene of the wreck for two or three hours I met the coaches, with horses fagged, still a few miles from it. It is very doubtful if the passengers will get back to Wyndham in time for to-morrow morning’s train to Dunedin, as some of them intended. I have given so much by way of introduction as will be of interest to persons intending to visit the scene of the wreck They may take the following facts as correct : —The station to leave the train at is Edendale, where a coach awaits every train, taking passengers to Wyndham, whence a coach goes to Portrose every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. Prom Portrose to the wreck there is a good track. Getting there is of course a matter for arrangement. I arrived at the scene of the wreck at half-past 10 this morning. The spot where the vessel struck is on Otara Reef, to the north of Waipapa Point, and to the south of Slope Point, forming a bight perhaps seven mih s long. Otara Reef is a very short distance north of Slope Point. It runs out abont a mile and a-half, I believe, in a direction facing Waipapa Point. A vessel has, of course, no business near it, and should not pass within at any rate four miles of it. I think at the same time it must be remembered that Bluffbound vessels have to pass inside Ruapuko Island, twelve miles out, opposite the Toi Tois. The whole of the bight mentioned has a sandy beach, with a range of sandhills at its edge, dividing it from the land, which hero is very flat for some miles inland. It may thus be understood that when the weather is thick there is some difficulty in getting a good sight of the land, as after Waipapa Point there are no prominent headlands, and indeed it is not a prominent one. The Government might, perhaps, consider the advisability of placing a light, it not at Waipapa, at any rate at Slope Point, which is close to the Toi-Tois, and thus handy to be reached. The point of the reef on which the steamer struck is not more, certainly, than half a mile from the beach, and if she had gone on her course without the reef interposing, she would unquestionably have speedily run her nose in the sand. In order to make the striking assume as much a narrative form as possible, I may begin by quoting the statements of the chief and second mates to me, premising that these two officers (Messrs Lindsay and Maloney), with a sailor, aro the whole of the survivors now left at the scene, the others having been taken away by the Hawea, as you have probably heard. The first mate was asleep at tbo time. His statement, as far as it bears on the history of occurrences prior to the disaster, is as follows :— ■“ I turned in at four o’clock, leaving the second mate in charge. The captain was on deck when I went below. I had been steering W.B.W. from two o’clock, and previous to my going down the captain had come on deck and given the order to alter her course to W.”

The second mate’s statement, which he has given me very clearly, is highly important, as ho was in charge at the time tho accident happened, and alone can now give a statement exactly concerning the captain’s actions. The following is his statement in his own words : —“ I came on deck at 4 a.m., and got the command from the chief officer to head her west. I had been a few minutes on the bridge when tho captain came on to tho bridge also. I said, ‘ I think we are rather close in shore, sir.’ He said, ‘Yes, by Jove, I think I hear the breakers.’ He ordered the helm a-starboard, and hauled the ship out a point and a half, making her course W. by S. half S. I steered her at that for about twenty-five minutes, when he left the bridge, saying, ‘ I am going to steady her coarse again by the standard compass. Watch when I blow my whistle, and see how her head is by tho forward compare.’ I whistled back to him when he whistled. Then he came and asked how she was. I told him her head was due

west. Ho said, ‘That’s all right,’ and that the two compasses tallied. Then he went aft. A few minutes afterwards, I cannot say exactly how long, I thought I could see the breakers on the lee bow, and rushed aft and told the captain I thought I could see the breakers. Ho ordered the ship to be hauled off the shore, but before there was time to do it she struck. He said, *My God, she’s ashore ! ’ and he at onoe gave orders to call all on board and clear away the boats. It was a thick morning, with a heavy gloom on the land. When we struck the land could scarcely be seen, but I could hear the breakers ashore.” Such is the exact history of matters previous to the vessel striking. Of what occurred afterwards you have already had pretty full particulars—l moan as to the attempts made to land by boats, &s. It will not be necessary for me to repeat the history of these attempts. The first mate gives me information as to the behaviour of the passengers and tho excitement that was beginning as he reached the deck. The passengers all came crowding up at once, and for some minutes there was difficulty in controlling them. While tho boats were being cleared some passengers in their wish to get saved jumped into them before things were ready to swing them up to the davits. There was so much crowding that the men wore hindered in getting the arrangements completed. The captain had to threaten to use force to keep them back, and it was with difficulty those who had got in were got cut. At tho launching of each boat there was a good deal of trouble from the passengers, and the captain and mate had more than once to interfere. Things became quieter by degrees. Prom the time the chief mate’s boat reached the shore and capsized (the boy drowned was of Dunedin, and had only joined that trip, and was a brass cleaner), nothing possibly could be done for the passengers. The tide was flowing after nine o’clock, and the wind rising with it the sea increased. The chief officer is strongly of opinion that even had assistance come after eleven o’clock on Friday morning no boat could have got alongside the steamer, as the sea was breaking over her heavily. It has been urged by some that Mr Mills, when he knew the Kakanui was at tho Bluff, should have arranged for her going at once to the wreck, but even if he had done to she could not possibly have arrived until about four o’clock in the afternoon, and, according to Mr Lindsay, nothing could have been done, at any rate with boats. However, this is a digression. Those on shore had to remain doing nothing, whilst every moment they saw the sea rising, and knew tho lives of all on board were in jeopardy. The saloon had at a very early stage been flooded, and all the women were got by the captain into the smoking-room. This was before the first mate left, as ho saw them sitting there wrapped up in shawls, rugs, &s. From tho smoking-room they all had to be taken on to the forecastle-head as the sea rose, and from there eventually to the rigging. Frequently those on shore, from noon onwards, saw people being washed overboard, never to be seen again. At 2.30 a big sea washed over the forecastle, and it was plainly pereeived after it had passed over that the number there clustered had greatly diminished, The Maltese cook was one who was washed over by that big wave. He got to shore, after a long swim northwards. The girl he tried to save so pluokily, but in vain, was a Tasmanian native, known to the chief mate as hailing from New Norfolk in that colony, and as having come on hoard at Auckland. The purser and his wife were amongst those so washed off, and the cook states that just before the wave came the purser was kissing his wife and consoling her, telling her that if things came to the worst, and they bad to go, they must bear the knowledge bravely. It was after the big wave that the people took more generally to the rigging.

The chief mate states that he saw no man in the rigging with a child lashed to him. The afternoon passed over drearily. The people on the boat appeared to be behaving with calmness, as if they were prepared to meet any fate that might befall them. Darkness came, and the survivors on shore lit a huge fire with wreckage, and sat around it. It may be imagined how the unfortunates on the rigging must have envied those on shore, as, unseen themselves in the darkness, they could see their late fellow voyagers sitting round that fire. At 7 o’clock the s.s. Kakanui came from the Bluff, and as the light of that steamer was seen by those on the Tararua a cheer from the vessel was heard on shore, but the Eakanui could do nothing, and the hopes of all on board the ill-fated vessel must indeed have sunk to zero. All that remains to tell is that at 25 minutes to three on Saturday morning on the shore was heard a noise as of a series of cracks. Then there came a terrible cry—a howl of terror and dismay. It seemed like one sustained ory, and again there was silence. It was the silence of death. In the morning there was not a vestige of the Tararua except a topmast spar, that moved to and fro w>th each wave. So things remain at present. There is a perfect blank at tho spot, with that exception. I left the spot at about half-past two to-day, when only two bodies had been recovered—one of a man, which was washed ashore on Friday night, the other of a woman, recovered on Saturday morning. Other bodies have been seen—at any rate one was. To day it was on the reef, and unavailing efforts were made to recover it.

With regard to the two bodies recovered an excellent suggestion is made, as I am writing, by some Invercargill gentlemen who got down to tho scene. To-morrow, they think, a photographer should be sent down to aid identification, and have telegraphed to the Mayor of Invercargill to do so. Mr M'Culloch, the coroner, is one of the gentlemen mentioned, and purposes to hold an inquest. I saw the two corpses. The woman’s is that of a young Serson, possibly twenty years of age. She as small regular features, is of small build, has good teeth, dark brown hair, and has along with her one or two remnants of underclothing a pair of worsted stockings on, with blue and purple bars, and leather strap-garters. The man is of gentlemanly appearance, tall, about 35 years old, a shaved chin, with a small tuft beneath his under lip, dark brown whiskers, and strong. He has no clothing, evidently having stripped himself to swim, and has a ring on his finger. When I came away the tide was coming in, and the strong easterly breeze blowing was bringing in a good quantity of wreckage. There may therefore be some bodies brought in, and they will likely be to,the northward, as most of the wreckage sets that way. Tho beach is covered with small pieces of timber, showing that the breaking up of the vessel has been thorough. Having a spare half hour, I had a look through some of the passengers’ boxes with Mr Maloney. Two or three are Dr, Campbell’s. One contains a portrait album, in which there is an excellent likeness of himself, and in the other are children’s clothes and books—evidently the children’s books, for on the flyleaf of one is inscribed Campbell by the principal of Breadalbane School.” There is a box addressed “J. W., per steamer Liguria,” and another has a book inside with the name “ William Green.” In it there is a box which evidently belonged to a person named William Downer, although such a man is not on the passenger list. I saw before leaving that it contains a receipt from Money Wigram and Co. for William Downer’s passage money by the Norfolk to Port Lyttelton, dated 19th April, ISBO. His age is stated in it as 42. There is also a document in the box showing that he was a Freemason belonging to the Gosport Lodge. Another box belonged to Carl Carlberg, a Christchurch passenger. His name on documents inside show this.

In connection with the subject of wreckage, I think the police have not shown much celerity in getting to the place. There are eight or ten there now—four from Dunedin under Sergeant O’Connor, several from Invercargill under Inspector Buckley, and Detective Tuohy, Constable Oowlay from Balclutha. Constable Freewell from Mataura Bridge, and Constable Mitchell from the Bluff. They all arrived to-day. The Bluff man walked up the sea coast, a distance of twenty-five miles. The Dunedin men could not have arrived earlier, but the Invercargill might. They should have been present to take charge of things coming ashore. The boxes I saw had all their contents strewn out on the beach directly they were found, and things (not from these boxes, but other goods) are said to have been taken away. Nothing like a proper search for bodies has yet taken place, and it is to be hoped Inspector Buckley will have the good sense to send some of his men right along the beach to Waikawa, or even farther north. I inquired particularly from Mr Lindsay and Mr Maloney if they had seen anything of Mr J. O, Eva, They both say they cannot remember seeing him at all on Friday afternoon. Mr Maloney tells me that Mr Eva, on going on board, expressed himself to the effect that they would never reach Melbourne. He mentioned that they had sailed together before,

and, pointing to a box, said “ Sir, you see that, box; it will never reach Melbourne. Now, you mark my words.” I had not an opportunity of questioning him more clesely about this remark.

It is worthy of mention that one of the last things the chief mate can remember as occurring before he left the ship wae one of the Wesleyan clergymen from Christchurch remarking to him, “Now, do be careful," referring to the landing of the boat. It would probably be Mr Waterhouse. He was an elderly man. As to the identity of the two bodies found, Mr Maloney is confident that the man was a saloon passenger who came on board at Wellington. The woman is thought to bo Miss Kelly, who shipped at Auckland, because by the passenger list only two single women were left on board—tbo young lady referred to and Dr. Campbell’s servant, Tne latter, Mr Maloney informed me, was a stout dark young woman, and he is sure the corpse is not hors. The man, it may bo mentioned here, was swimming ashore with a lifebuoy round him. Just as he reached the breakers the lifebuoy was washed clean away from him, and he himself was almost buried in the sand with the backwash. He was got out, but though not quite dead, could not bo brought round with the appliances at hand, which of course wore few. The two bodies are now enclosed in rough coffins and wrapped up in blankets.

Amongst the lucky escapes, I am told of one of a lady who came from Tauranga getting out at Port Chalmers at the wish of some friends. She had been very sick on the downward voyage, and they prevailed upon her to defer tho completion of her journey to Hobart till another steamer. The reverse was in some instances the case. Thus, Mr Hardia had persuaded his brother to wait for the Tararua, instead of going by the previous week’s steamer as he fully intended. I may mention here that John Gordon, a Christchurch passenger, was a railway guard who was going Home on a six months’ leave of absence.

The fact that the first telegram announced tho safety of all was because nobody apparently of those who came from the wreck, or of the settlers who heard of it, realised the gravity of the situation. There ore two or three small boat harbors on the coast line, one of them within a mile of where the accident occurred. However, nobody on board knew of them. If so, the big boat brought to shore by the chief officer could have landed perhaps forty passengers at a time.