Terrible Disaster.

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 32, 3 November 1894, Page 9

Terrible Disaster.

Loss of the Steamer Wairarapa. One Hundred and Thirty Four Persons Drowned.

wreckage. The after deckhouse was lifted up by a great wave and the life rafts slipped off. Some of the passengers, who were strong enough, got on and helped others on the rafts. Some of the passengers tried to get aft to the starboard boat, but there was no officer or seaman there to give any instructions how to get it out, and in the end it was cut away from the davits, but got stove in on the deck. It got partly filled with water, but ten got into it and kept,afloat till they were rescued by another boat two hours later. They kept pulling round the steamer till daylight. One patent light was thrown out to enable some to be saved. Some of the crew endeavoured to save the passengers, but there was confusion and no general order. The crew at first seemed to be waiting for orders which appeared never to come, at least I heard none from the bridge, only the grinding noise and smashing of things being carried away, and people being killed by the wreckage, spars, and cargo were heard. The 2nd cabin stewardess showed great bravery. She fastened life belts round the women before going on deck, and she got on deck and was washed overboard. We hung in the rigging and to the boat davits with the sea breaking over us till daylight. Some were washed off, their strength having failed them. • I saw about a dozen on the rocks. We gradually saw the cliffs when the fog cleared away and day began to dawn. The steamer’s bow was six feet®into the mouth of a cleft. ' Great credit is due to a steerage passenger named John Madden, who stood in the main rigging with a line and kept throwing it to all who could get within reach and brought them to the rigging. He, with others, saved six in that way. One of the firemen left the main rigging with a rope to the fore rigging, tying it to the davits as he went, by which those saved from the main rigging got along. A life line was got from the fore rigging to the rocks and the people were hauled through the surf to the shore, two ladies being lost, not being able to hold on. The boats went away and informed Mr Eglinton, a settler, whose sons, with some officers, went and requested the Maories to search for the bodies, and to see if they could save any lives at the wreck. Everybody on the island behaved kiudly. The Maories brought their boats and took the people off the rocks on Monday afternoon. William Caldwell, steward in saloon of the Wairarapa, states I was in my bunk when she struck. I rushed on deck, went on the rail, and remained there until the bridge gave way. After that I managed to get into the fore rigging, and remained hanging on it for" ten hours. About twenty-five others were also hanging on the fore rigging besides myself. By the line cast ashore on the rocks we reached the rocks. Two ladies were drowned in going ashore hand over hand.

Although about fifty or sixty got on the rocks, the captaiu, who was on the top deck of the steamer, jumped off; no more was seen of him. Just before that the captain called out to four ladies on the bridge, one of whom had a child in her arms, “ For Grod’s sake go to the fore rigging.” A large number of passengers remained below, and owing to the water coming into the steamer so fast they perished. Sixteen horses were located behind the engine room ; the horses got adrift and killed a lot of people who were struggling in the water. The scene was a terrible one, I will never forget it. Women and their husbands were offering up prayers in a most piteous manner. X was one of the ten or eleven who remained on the rocks from 10 or XL o’clock on Monday till 1 or 2 o’clock on Tuesday. ■

Mr Henry Palmer, coi oner at Great Barrier, came to Auckland by the s. s. Argyle. He states that he first heard of the disaster on the Argyle. Proceeding from Tryphena to Port Fitzroy, they sighted a broken chest of drawers in the little passage to Fitzroy, and subsequently passed other wreckage. When they got to Fitzroy at mid-day yesterday, they found some of the passengers and crew of the Wairarapa and learned particulars of

the casualty. Took aboard the survivors and proceeded along the coast to search for others and thence to the wreck. We found the Wairarapa between the copper mine and the Needles (Aigalles) off Miner’s Head. She was right under the precipitous cliffs 760 feet high. The steamer had knocked a hole in the rocks where she first struck and had then slid back. She had fortunately got into a little nook between projecting points. Had she struck on either side it is almost certain that not a soul would have been saved. In this nook are a few ledges three or four feet in width and it was on these that some of the people scrambled and clung to until rescued by the boats. Above these ledges the cliffs rise perpendicularly and it would have been impossible to climb to the top. The chief engineer told me it was awful to see the futile struggles of the people in the water, dashed backwards and forwards between the steamer and the rocks and by the swell and struggling vainly to get hold of the cliffs. Probably many were killed by being battered against the cliffs, those saved being all more or less knocked about, and a .number badly injured.