The Wairarapa Disaster.

Opunake Times, Volume I, Issue 40, 16 November 1894, Page 4

The Wairarapa Disaster.

MR PARRISH’S STATEMENT.

Mr George Frederick Parrish, one of the survivors of the ill-fated Wairarapa, who has arrived in New Plymouth, has given the following statement of his experiences to a Daily News representative : —I had been on deck all night till about 11.30 p.m., when I went down below and turned into my berth with my clothes on. I was just dosing off to s’eep when I heard a tremendous crash. I jumped put of my berth and immediately ran up on deck. I reached the deck about a minute after the crash, and I saw that the vessel had stopped. I met one of the officers and asked him if there was any danger, and he said “ No.” I did not see any preparation made towards getting out the boats at that time. A minute or two after I saw some of the crew and passengers trying to get a boat out. I went and helped them; it was boat No. 4. Shortly afterwards the steamer lurched over, which drove the boat on to the deck, and stove in the boat’s side. We then left her, as she would not be seaworthy. After leaving the boat I went down below to the cabin io look for a friend but could not find ber. I noticed the cabin was pretty well deserted, nearly all the passengers being on deck. I went on deck again, putting my life-belt on which I had got from my berth as I ran along. I then went to No. 3 boat; the vessel gave a very heavy lurch. I saw the horseboxes carried away, and a number of the horses came on deck. We had on board 16 horses, and I noticed that the horses tumbled down amongst the people on the deck, and jammed them up against the railings. The steamer had tco great a list to allow of assistance being giveu. After the No. 3 boat was cleared away we pushed her out. The people hanging on to her were carried over the side. I was the only one who had been launching her that was left on deck. Owing to the heavy list the ship had I could not get on to my feet again. I slid down the deck, catching hold of the boat’s davit. I then took the life line from the davit head, took the end of it in my hand, and jumped overboard. After a hard struggle in the water, owing to the heavy sea, I caught hold of the boat and pulled myself up, and a man in the boat assisted me. There were only two men in the boat when I got in. We got out the oars and got the boat clear of the vessel. It was a good-sized boat, and we had no fear but she would be able to live in the sea. There was a great number of people in the water amongst the wreckage. We pulled up all we could out of the water—about 10 or 18 in all —five being women. We could not get any closer to the vessel because of the broken wreckage. It was too dark to see the people in the water, but we could hear them calling out. There were horses, cases of oranges, and people all floating about together, and I believe a good many of the passengers were killed by the horses and wreckage. It was too rough to try to get on to the rocks and dangerous on account of the darkness. We kept out towards the sea and picked up three rafts floating about with people on them. We took the line from the first raft and lines from the other rafts were made fast to it. There were about 14 or 15 people on the three rafts. We then made an attempt to get clear of the vessel and take the people off the rafts ; the rafts would probably have been smashed against the rocks had we not taken them in tow”. In getting away one of the rafts broke loose and owing to the heavy sea we.could not get near it again. There-were people on it, but I could uot at that time tell how many, as it was pitch dark. It was, however, picked up nest day with five persons on it. We took the people from the two rafts into the boat, and cut the rafts adrift. We then had 25 in the boat. We pulled away from the rocks and kept the boat headed to the sea a 11 night. About 4 o’clock in the morning daybreak came. We kept the oars going all night and when daylight came we could not see the vessel. We tried to find her but did not succeed, nor did we see any wreckage. The five ladies in the boat were suffering intensely from the cold as they were lightly clad ; in fact they had almost no clothing on them when they were picked up. I took off my coat and vest and gave them to one of the ladies. There were no officers in the boat except the chief engineer. We determined to hoist sail and try and land. We pulled and sailed till about 8.30 a.m.wvhen we found a bay which we made for and landed. We found another of the ship’s boats there and she had landed 20. so that we made a party in all of 54 survivors. We thought at this time that none of the others had been saved. About a mile from where we landed we found a settler’s house where we all obtained food and shelter and met with great kindness. The third officer, the chief engineer and seme others of the crew went to Maori Bay where they got some boats and went around the island and found the wreck. We were iakea to different homesteads on the island and remained till’ Wednesday at midday when we were taken by the s.s. Argyle to Auckland.