LOSS OF THE BEGA.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9116, 8 April 1908, Page 5

LOSS OF THE BEGA.

DISGRACEFUL MISMANAGEMENT.

BOATS WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER. COWARDLY PROPOSALS. SEAMEN BEHAVE WELL. Per Press Association. —Copyright Received April 7, 9.45 a.m. Sydney, April 8. It took the Bega’s boats 13 hours to effect a landing. The boats were connected with each other by a line. One of them containing women and children had to he baled continuously owing to the plug having been left out, and the impossibility of discovering the aperture in the darkness and crowded condition of the boat. Women used shoes and hats as balers.

There were no rowlocks in this boat which had to be taken in tow by another heavily laden one. Cries went up from the women’s boat that they were sinking. Then two or three men in the towing boat demanded that the line should be cut.

Feeling ran high and an angry scene followed.

This taking in a good deal of water.

A passenger named Sharp sitting in the stern, was handed a knife and asked to cut the line, but he threw the knife in the sea.

No food or water was placed in the boats, and the occupants suffered much from thirst. imi Four of the Bega’s seamen behaved splendidly. They took the oafs on leaving the steamer and never ceased pulling for twelve hours. When nearing the breakers the rowlocks were passed to the boat which was in tow and the rope severed. Combing breakers bore both craft high up on the beach, where they capsized, but the crews were in safety. SCENE ON THE BEACH. Here a touching scene was enacted. It was a[forlorn party of women, hatless and bootless, one clad in a nightdress and others but half clad, fatigued and drenched to the skin, their minds wearied by the anxiety caused by the wreck and the perilous journey. The scene when it was proposed by some cravens to cut them loose to drift helpless, perhaps to eternity, had worn them out, but they formed into a group, the mothers with little babes in their arms and children clinging round their skirts, stood on the lonely seashore to sing two hymns of thanksgiving to Him who holds the sea in the hollow of His hand, who had led them in safety. There was not a dry eye among those present. It was the reaction that followed a night full of incidents of alarm and danger.