ADRIFT IN OPEN BOAT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 1

ADRIFT IN OPEN BOAT

17 DAYS OF STARVATION AND THIRST MISSIONARY'S EXPERIENCE Seventeen days in an open boat, wiiih the pitiless tropical sun pouring down on the six Islanders and one white man, who lay with parched tongues and cracked lips in the shade of the rigged awning—water and food all gone, and only coconuts to keep their bodies nourished. , . . Imagine the rigours suffered by a missionary ■of one of the loneliest stations of Melanesia and his native

crew, who were blown off their course on a trip between Santa Cruz and Reef Islands. Central figure in this adventure was the Rev. G. West, of Dunedin, who •with another white man is carrying on mission work in these two groups among 3,000 natives, and who arrived in New Zealand by the Southern Cross today on furlough. The story of the affair had to be dragged from Mr. West, and many details of their sufferings on the voyage were left to the imagination. In an open whaleboat, whose only motive power comprised a sail, he and six native boys set out from Taumakio Island in the Santa Cruz group bound for the Reef Islands, 70 miles distant.

After about a week alternately becalmed and running before the wind with no sight of the breakers which would indicate the reef came the sickening realisation that they had lost their course.

The food supply was running short and the water was almost gone and in the next few days the little crew endured the tortures of thirst and hunger. The beaker of water, which had been rationed with the food, gave out and becalmed they lay for three days in the bottom of the boat, shaded only by an awning. Then at night came their salvation in heavv rain. Hurriedly a tarpaulin was rig- 1 ged in the darkness to prevent the escape of a drop of the life-giving liquid, and with the beaker refilled and a canoe in the vessel holding a large quantity of water, the drooping spirits of the crew revived. There were still the gnawing pangs of hunger to be allayed, and for several . days they were compelled to subsist on coconuts. There was only rice in the boat before the rain fell, but it could now be eaten raw. After the water supply was replenished the anchor chain was dragged into the bottom of the boat and inside a canteen tin a fire was lit and the crew was able to enjoy its first drink for three days. For 17 days the whaleboat drifted I on in this way, and meantime all the | boxes and spare pieces of the boat ! were used for lighting fires. Even some of the oars were used for kindling wood. Then providentially the wind changed, and steering by the aid of a small pocket compass, the boat ran before the wind on the course it had come and managed to reach the Reef Islands—the crew more dead than ali'v e. The lack of food severely affected a number of the natives, who i did not recover for some weeks. * The fine weather during the 3 7 i sea was our salvation." said Mr. West.