CAPTAIN'S STORY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 391, 28 November 1932, Page 3

CAPTAIN'S STORY

SOUTHERN CROSS CREW'S FIGHT FOR LIFE FROM DISABLED SHIPV LACERATED BY REEF. Suva, Saturday. Forty Solomon Islands hoys, with four deck officers and th'e cook and stewai'd were terribly lacerated by coral when a boat, launched from the mission steamer Southern Cross was overeome in a raging surf and battered by cargo swept overboard. The ship struck the reef at daylight during a squall and heavy rain. The story was related hy Captain Stanton, who has reached Port Yila in a launch from Tanna Island, which he made in a whaleboat from the wreck. With him were J. Scott, the chief officer, and 0. D. Wilkes, the third officer. He left R. Holmes, the second officer, at the island of Eromanga, and is chartering a 30-ton schooner from New Caledonia and returning immediately to salvage the safe and gear washed ashore, before proceeding dirct to Tulagi'with the crew. Left on Island. Other white members of the crew j were left at Aneityum. | Some of the crew were unable to swim, and were assisted ashore by Europeans. A line to the shore broke while a passenger was clinging to it. The captain dived in after him, and to divest himself of the man's frenzied clutches had to knock him out. The passenger was dragged ashore halfdrowned. Connection with the shore was established by an officer, who swam with a line through 150 yards of boiling surf, over ragged coral. It took him half an hour to cover the distance.