WRECK OF THE S.S. PENGUIN.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 450, 16 February 1909, Page 3

WRECK OF THE S.S. PENGUIN.

Harrowing Details.

The Captain s Story

Mrs Hannan’s Narrative.

W KbLtNGTON, Saturday

Captain Naylor ol the ill-fated stamer was washed ashore on a smashed boat. He, loitunately, escaped injury among the rocks and was able to make his way into Wellington. “ We left Picton at 6.20 p.rn., be said, “ami entered the Straits a few minutes before 8 o’clock. The weather was fairly clear, but about half-way across the Straits it set down thick. The Penguin was running on the outside course which would have taken her miles clear of where we struck. I allowed for a big southerly set-

About id o’clock we were expecting to pick up Pencarrow light, for we had run the distance. However, it was so thick that we could not see it nor anything else ashore, consequently I decided to put the steamer's head out to sea and I was actually getting her head round when we struck a rock. I believe it was Tom’s Rock an outlying obstruction, a mile and a quarter oil Karori stream which flows into the Straits a few miles south oi Torawhiti. The blow was a sliding one, along the strabuard side, ' and after touching the rock the steamer slid off quite clear. I ordered the wells to be sounded and found water in No. i and the after hold. This soon began to gain on the engine-room pumps and we made preparations to get the women and children away from the ship. It was a fairly big sea, which broke up some of the boats. That is why the crowd which was saved had to take to the rafts. ’ ’

The captain was closely questioned in regard to what happened as soon as the steamer struck, and it was evident that he remained on the bridge steering so as to sc cure a sheltered sea for launching the boats on one sine. “Uy turning the vessel broadside on to the waves we managed to do this once,’’ he said, “ but we could not do it for the boats on the other side. The Penguin was settling steadily by the head, and at last she took a plunge and went down.”

“ When did that occur ?asked the pressman. For answer the captain took out his watch, which had stopped at 10.53. “ That was when I got into the water,” he said.

Continuing his story, he explained that the women and children were got away in two boats, which bad got well clear of the ship when she took the plunge. ” The seas unshipped one of the boats before we could do anything with it,” he said, “and another one was smashed alongside the steamer before it got away with some women and children, but I believe all the occupants were got aboard again. When the boats left the ship I told them to pull out to sea and let the flood tide take them around the lee of Terawhiti. “ I lauded about an hour and a half before daylight on an upturned and damaged boat. I picked up one man in the water. He was a steward from the Pateeua, whom I knew by sight. The poor fellow stuck to the wreckage with me until wc got fifty yards from the reef. Then the boat heeled over twice with us, and I lost him.” The only woman survivor of the Penguin wreck was Mrs Joe Hannan, and particularly heartrending is her story. Her four children were all drowned before her eyes. She told a most pathetic story to a reporter who interviewed her at Mr McMenamin’s station. She says: “My husband was working on the railway down south and he lately contracted consumption, so we booked our passages by the Penguin, taking our lour children with us. Our intention was to go to Rotorua to see if it would do my husband any good. At about 10 o’clock on Friday night we heard a bump and a little later the stewardess came down and told us to get ready, as the boat was sinking. We all rushed on deck and I was told to get into one of the boats which was being got ready. I relused to leave my husband and children hut they forced me to get into*the boat, separating me from Mr Hannan although my children were with me. The boat was filled with passengers and one sailor was also ordered iu.

“ Just as they went to lower the boat the tackle falls gave way and the craft went down head-first into the ocean, all my children being drowned except my youngest baby, two years old, which I had lashed to one of the seats. Nobody seemed to hare time to fescue the children, but I suppose that could not be helped. There were six women in the boat and I should think somewhere near the same number of men. We got safely away from the ship. The saloon stewardess, Mrs Jacob, helped us before we got into the boat. My word, she was a brave woman ! She did everything, got blankets and wrapped me up, and was calm and collected and did not hurry in the least. “ When the tackle falls gave way I heard one of my children calling ‘ Oh, Mamma, help us,’ but God knows we were powerless to do anything. My husband was on the deck and I said to him when we parted ‘ Cheer up old man ! ’ ; he replied 1 Good-bye,’ and I have not seen him ‘since. We drifted about, and d uriug the night we saw one of the rafts

I quite close to us. We coo-eecl and tried to get up to it hut could not. We must have been some hours in the boat. We could see the rocks ahead of us and we tried to keep off them. The sailor who was in charge did his best, avoiding the reefs.

“We drifted about, it seemed for hours, everybody sharing at the oars and trying to avoid the reefs. My poor little baby was then still alive and I realised it was all I had in the world- The boat was lining with water, 'leaking badly, and those not rowing kept bailing out the water for their dear lives, but we could not check the inllow and we realised that it was only a matter of lime when the boat would be right awash. “ We knew by the roaring ol the breakers that we were close on the reef, and pull as we could we were unable to keep the boat with her head to the sea. Suddenly, I don't know how it happened, an enormous wave struck us side-ou. and the boat capsized, liverybody was instantly thrown into the sea, but I managed to grasp a rope and God alone knows how I bung on. A young boy, This Matthews, was floating near me and I got a rope to him and helped him to make himself secure to a thwart of the capsized boat. We were right underneath the boat, but the air must have forced the water out, turd whjle the bottom of the boat stood out of the water we clung on with our heads towards the lloor of the boat and we were thus enabled to breathe. We were really imprisoned between the keel ot the boat and the seats, the boat still floating all the time upside down. It seemed that we floated about for hours until finally we were washed up on to the beach, pinned under the boat.

“We were, you must remember, still under, the boat in its capsized condition, pinned in under the thwarts. Of course the water was very shallow but the spent waves continued to lap right up to our bodies. We had no way of getting out. My poor little baby had in the meantime died from shock and exposure. I think the life-belt must have choked her. While losing my all, I saved the life of a strange boy, Matthews. The terrible experience had told on him and he lay by my side unconscious.

“ I made up my mind to get out from under the boat and I started to scratch away at the shingly beach to make a hole to creep out. Then I heard the voices of the station shepherds who lifted up the boat and got us out and we were taken to the homestead. The names of the children I lost were : Ronald Kdward, aged 10 years; George Alexander, aged five years; Amelia, aged three years ; Ruby May, aged two years A Chas. Jackson, one of the rescued sailors, says that if anyone acted heroicall} r it was Mrs Hannan.

LIST OF DEAD OR MISSING

The list of those dead or missing, so far as can be ascertained, is:— PASSENGERS. Mesdames —• Britton Hart Toomer Hale Misses — Doran McAlley Ribband Hunt Jennings Maguire, 3 Ivy Toomer Alice Toomer Nodi ne Messrs — Bird Bone Hale S. Holcroft Holmes Underwood H. White W. Higgins .Henry Troadec Coombe Johnson Keith Williamson Seed Rogers A. E. Bone E. Matthews, not to be confused with the lad saved. Master Maguire Mrs Symonds, two children and maid, Miss J. Ren--11 il Mrs W. H. Henry Felix Woodward N. .Shaw Mrs Trice C. Woodward J. N.Hannam and 4 children J. Bates Mrs Bishop and child OFFICERS AND CREW. W. A. Mclntyre, Chief Officer F. Driscoll, second G. A. Eoosemore, third

R. Urquhart, Chief Engineer S. Rentoul, third C. Alexander, Chief Steward T. Playes, boatswain C. W. Westacott, able seaman. E. Gale Henderson, A. 13. G. Jaffra, donkeyman Rafferty, greaser C. Fairbairu J. Wood or Ward, fireman J. Conie Barnes, trimmers Mrs C, Jacobs, saloon stewardess Mrs Hope, fore - cabin stewardess E. Gale, A.B. G. Woodford, A.B, H. Wood, fireman Edwin Hall, second cook Henry McGuire, scullion Wellum, second pantryman

Cooke, mess-room steward Ernest Crook, saloon waiter G. Claydon, saloon waiter tup: SAVED. OKI'ICKKS AND CKKW. The names of the surviving members of the crew are as under; Captain Naylor W. VV. Luke (second engineer) A. R. Thompson (purser) G. P'arrell (able seaman) C. Jackson (able seaman) P’. Wickton (greaser) W. Pierric (fireman) R, Watts (steward) M. Keys (steward) - 1). Lynn (chief cook) C. Jones (pantryman) J. Hull (steward) W. Rees (steward) I). M’Cormick (steward) G. Francis (boots) Sncdgrove (ordinary seaman) TDK VASSKNGKUS. The following is the list of the survivors: Mrs Ilannam A. Hopkins R. Jack Robert Fllison Wm. Henry Green Gerald Bridge T. Allen Master F. Matthews Frank Sbaw Leonard T. Hogg G. Perkins T. H. Riggs-Millar C. E. Downes. Tiros. Holland THE DEATH ROLL. Latest estimates put the death roll at 75. The Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Ward, sent the following message to Hie manager of the Union Steam Ship Company at Wellington upon hearing the sad news : Deeply regret to hear of disaster and the more so on account of the sad loss of life that has attended it. Later the Prime Minister wired from Rotorua :—■

As intimated to you by Ur. Findlay, if there is anything the Government can do to help iu connection with the sad disaster, it will be most readily done.

Mr A. Kennedy stated in his reply to Sir Joseph Ward that the Postal Department was doing all in its power. He expressed his thanks for the Prime Minister’s generous offer. Rotorua, February 14.

The Prime Minister the following message from Sir James Mills, Managing Director of the Union Company, who is now iu Sydney:—

Am grateful to you ' for expression of sympathy and offer of assistance, which has been communicated to me here. Am deeply distressed at the sad loss of life.

BOA TS v. RAFTS

It is now definitely known that 34 persons out of a total of over 100 on board the Penguin were saved. Of the total of 34 saved, 21 souls reached the shore per medium of two rafts, as compared with the remaining 13, who, we can assume were aided by the boats fof which there were five). On top of this it should be noted that of those who took to the rafts after the steamer sank not one was lost, whereas the sh ip’s boats failed utterly to do their part. Here is the manner in which ay of the 34 saved are known to ' have reached the shore : *-

No. 1 raft. —y saved (all on board). No. 2 raft. —12 saved (all on board ). No. 1 boat. —1 saved (boat swamped all drowned save Mr Luke, who swam remainder of distance to shore). No. 2 boat. —4 saved (including Mrs Hannam), boat thrown upturned on beach.

No. 3 boat. —1 (captain) saved (boat smashed). Nos. 4. and 5 boats. —Reached shore without occupants.