WRECK OF THE JESSIE NICCOL.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 953, 11 February 1911, Page 3

WRECK OF THE JESSIE NICCOL.

THREE MEN DROWNED. | Invkkcargill, Feb. 9. j Details of the wreck of the Jessie j Niccol to hand are somewhat meagre, but the story so far as it can be gathered is this: —After the ‘•marooning” of the oil-seekers i last year, the Jessie Niccol, which j is the property of Mr Joseph Hatch, of Invercargill, was sent down for the oil which had been left there, some of which she brought back on December Bth last. She again left here for the islands with another party of oil seekers, and to bring back the balance of the stored oil. To-day the auxiliary schooner Huinui from Campbell Islands brought to the Bluff the news of her wreck. The manager of the sealing j station at the Campbells bad com- I rauuicated to Captain Mcßride, of i the Huinui, that the Nova Scotian | sailing ship Ida M. Clark had called in and informed him that ! uhen passing the Mac quarries she j had been signalled for and the ' captain informed that the Jessie , Niccol, while at anchor, had been i caught in a north-easterly gale, I and her cables parting, she was driven on to the rocks and wrecked, and that her master, Captain Holmes, the first mate, Patterson, I and the cook, Mercer, had been ! drowned. When the accident i happened the balance of the crew ! and the other man who had been on board had safely landed, but the captain, the mate and cook were drowned through the boat in which they tried to make shore | capsizing, while those on shore ) looked on powerless to help, j Next day the captain’s body was i recovered and buried on the j island. Captain Gilbert, of the I Ida M- Clark, offered to take the I remaining men to Campbell Island, | but they refused, saying that they were well and had plenty of provisions.