MAROONED ON ISLAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 666, 18 May 1929, Page 1

MAROONED ON ISLAND

MISSING FISHERMEN FOUND MATATA PARTY (From Our Own Correspondent) WHAKATANE, Today. After being missing from Matata since last Sunday, the three men and three boys of a fishing expedition were discovered yesterday by a Whakatane fisherman on Rurima Island. The party had a most unenviable experience, in that they were marooned on a bare rock for a period of five days. Their sole source of water supply came from what little rain they could collect in benzine tins, and for food they were forced to subsist on mutton birds and slieUfisli. One of the party, Mr. W. Seymour, said that they left Matata on Sunday morning, and early in the afternoon landed to have lunch. The wind rose, and blew hard into the shore, so that it was found impossible to return that night. Next morning the wind was still blowing, and it did not go down till Tuesday night. That night, however, the anchor chain of the launch broke, and the craft was blown broadside on to the beach, and struck a log of wood. In the morning it was found to be impossible to start the engine. “It took all that day and Thursday to caulk the leaks and get the engine going,” Mr. Seymour said, “and then, when everything was ready, it came on to blow again, and we could not take the risk of running to the mainland. We lit fires of driftwood, thinking they would be seen from the shore.”

Two of the fishermen were brought j off the island by the launch of the I discoverer. The other four spent last: 1 night on the island, and as the engine l ! of the damaged craft is now in work-1 | ing order, they were to have come off this morning. i None of the party was any the j worse for the adventure, although ail j have been subjected to considerable [ discomfort. _ I