WRECK OF A BARQUENTINE

Taihape Daily Times, 20 February 1919, Page 7

WRECK OF A BARQUENTINE

CREW REACH PITCAIRN SYDNEY, February 18. The Pacific Isles""have taken. further toll of the sailing ships which, •.in these days, cross in large Unmbers 'between America and Australia and v j New Zealand. J The three masted barquentine St. James, of 1600 tons, and bound in this case from Vancouver, to Durban with lumber, went ashore on the island of Oneg (north of Pitcairn), in the dawn of December 16th. The ship climbed on a reef and stayed there. .Oneg is a low-lying and almost brtr'ren place, the captain, after a look at if, decided to try to reach Pitcairn, 120 miles away to the south. So captain and crew—l 4 in all—Set '{.out in the lifeboat and dinghy. There Ijiwas practically no wind. This gave jthem a smooth sea, but they had to jpull nearly all the way. After two Mays they arrived at Bounty Bay—'named after the ship from which '.ea-me the mutineers which gave Pir- ." f. cairn "its. romantic history.

There are 172 persons on this lonely, but beautiful Pacific Island, mostly descendants of the mutineers and their Tahitian wives, and of a kindly and most hospitable nature. They treated the castaways in the kindest posible way, and the 'latter declare that the month they spent on Pitcairn was the happiest period of their lives. "They were among the happiest flays I have ever spent in my life," said the steward of the St. James. "It was like a little world to itself—and a better world than we know. Pitcairn is the only place in all my travels where I have tasted the milk of human kindness.'

The islanders failed to signal one ■passing ship, hut later they caught the attention of the Port Augusta, from New York to Sydney, and this steamer landed the castaways in Sydney on February 6th.

The Pitcairn Islanders; with limited resource? at. their command, have built a small schooner, th<? Messenger, and in her some of the castaways and the islanders sailed to Oneg, and had a look at the stranded St. James. She was found to be practically a wreck, so they salved whatever they could and left her there.