THE STRATHCONA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 74, 27 July 1915, Page 4

THE STRATHCONA.

DETAILS OF THE WRECK. Pkr Prebs (Association. Auckland. July 26. Further particulars of the wreck ot the Strathcoiia. the Pacific Cable. Hoard's schooner, came by mail from Suva to-day. Before the marine enquiry in Suva, the captain of the Strathcniia stated thai the weather I'm a day or two after leaving Auckland was bad. hut be did not ascribe his mishap to that, but to his compasses. At 7.20 on the evening of June 10 he had just worked out his position

as 39 miles from Minerva reef, when the mate gave a sudden alarm and the vessel struck on what afterwards proved to be Minerva reef. They remained aboard the ship, on top of the reel', that night, and next morning they dragged the boats a considerable distance over the reef into a lagoon, and afterwards they built a large raft on which they placed a stove and erected a tent. Right men took up their quarters there, while the captain and four men undertook a perilous voyage of some hundreds of miles to Ono in the launch. They were picked up by the search steamer, as already described, when returning from Ono with a cutter. The eight other men spent an unenviable time on the reef, though they had plenty of supplies and fish. "When the search steamer left, the Strattbcona was lying on her side on the reef, and was likely to become a total wreck.