A WRECK MYSTERY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2167, 24 August 1920, Page 2

A WRECK MYSTERY.

VI&SEL REPORTED I'OEN HER-, E\G. U

NEAR TOLAGA BAY. ..

SKA KBIT PROVES FRUITLESS

THE POLICE SCEPTICAL,

Gisborne messages yesterday reported that a" steamer was ip distress off (he Pontae Rocks, about ten miles south of Tolaga Bay. Blasts'of the steamer's whistle were supposed to have been board at 4 o'clock on Sunday morning. This information was received by the Gisborne police, who were also advised that the steamer's-funnel was gone, and that the seas were breaking over the-vessel. There was no sign of life aboard. ASSISTANCE DESPATCHED. The manager of the Cajon Company despatched the collier Poherua from Gishnrne at 1t).40 o’clock last night, with instructions to make careful search. The steamer Pntiki left Tolago Bay at 10.45 with similar in.sl met ions. Later messages from Gisborne slate that, according to the postmaster at Tolago Bay, a party which, went out from the Rofotahi Station yesterday saw on a reef a big vessel with two masts, but with no signs of a funnel. The vessel was about five miles off the land, and a heavy surf' was breaking over her. The party went back to the shore in the evening. . It was (hen found Unit the vessel had drifted about two miles furl her in. There was no light, pr any sign of life aboard. Up till ten o'clock last night no wreckage had come ashore. The reported position of (Ik* vessel was between Rofotahi 'and Puatae, about eight miles south of Tolago Bay and two miles mirth' ■if Gallic End I;oi'ehuid. • Pomerca retches. A message despatched from Gisborne at 1P.45 yesterday states; "Poherua returned to port at .1.0 o'clock without being able to throw further light on the reported wreck. It is reported that she arrived off Gable End .Foreland at 2 a.m., and stood, by till after 0 a.m. The steamers Pntiki from Hicks Bay, and the Tiroa from Gisborne, wore then, in the locality making a close inspection of the coast line, but up to the little the Poherua left apparently nothing had been discovered." LATER TELEGRAMS. The Rofotahi Station reports that: the men who wen! to the beach early til the-morning have returned without linding tiny (race of wreckage on tlie beaches, or obtaining i y sight of (he vessel that was vif e yesterday. \ Gisborne, August S. McCrae and E. Williams, the two men who reported the supposed wreck, telephoned this afternoon, expressing (he positive opinion that the object sighted was not a but ti vessel in distress. It was'also seen by Mr Graham, manager of the Rototahi station, and his son, through binoculars. The vessel appeared about five miles out, and the A vail lira on her way to Auckland passed between, the derelict and the shore. The weather was then misty, and the wriek could not be discerned from the shore, but the haze afterwards lifted and the vessel could he seen quite distinctly lying in the trough of a wave very low in the water. Mr McCrae watched fur two hours, and Mr Graham and his son till dusk. Mr McCrae said he was convinced it was a steamer, and not a sailer, and was a large vessel of the mutton boat type.