RAIDERS’ RICH HAULS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3780, 17 April 1928, Page 1

RAIDERS’ RICH HAULS.

FROM ABANDONED SHIP.

Extraordinary features are associated with the wrecks of the steamer Riverina and the Merimbula, both lying high and dry these days on spots on the New South Wales coast, Australia. In the ease of the former the outstanding fact is that she has been sold twice since the wreck.

In the first instance a syndicate was formed and for £2,250 bought the hull with the idea of refloating the vessel. At one stage they were within an ace of doing so, and found little difficulty in floating a company with a capital of £15,000 to accomplish the work. Bad weather and heavy seas, however, which settled the Riverina further into the sandbar where she ran aground, settled their chances of doing anything further in that line and

they have given up the attempt. This month the hull was resold at public auction for £3lO, the auctioneer ruling out a first bid of £lO. Some of the men interested in the refloating company are concerned in the re-purchase, in an effort to get some of their money back. Souvenir hunters of all descriptions have made a mess of the Merimbula, the wreck which was sold also this month for £3OO. Barely had the steamer been abandoned before the raiders descended like crows round the carcase of a dead beast. As-no one was left to protect the cargo and other valuables, men, women, girls and boys clambered through the gaping hole torn in her bows, and it was a case of first in gets the pick of the offerings. In tjiie bush within a mile of the steamer were soon packed piles of pilfered goods, included in which were rum, whisky, motor tyres, sewing machines, perambulators, tables —in fait anything movable. Car loads of the stuff was removed. One man with a launch drew alongside the wreck and arranged with several men who were then on board

to assist him to load the launch with souvenirs. He agreed to run into the beach and distribute the spoils; but when they packed the small boat he headed out to sea, and that is the last they saw of him. For days afterwards all manner of people carted away small items, such as toys, (looks, fruit, brooms, and even casks of beer that had been overlooked by the earlier parties. There was no one to stop them and they evidently worked in the belief that an abandoned wreck, was the property of anyone who cohid reach her.