NEWS FROM KIMBERLEY. Wreck of the Rapide. A Seaman Drowned.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 178, 13 November 1886, Page 7

NEWS FROM KIMBERLEY. Wreck of the Rapide. A Seaman Drowned.

Fort Darwin, October 6. The correspondent of the "Sydney News " writes as follows ;— '• There wa3 little time left between my arrival at Wyndham and the departure of the Hero, to do more than hastily conclude my last letter. The Hero Wdb full of living freight, below and on deck, and many j were left in Wyndham whe would gladly have gone by her, notwithstanding all the diecomforts that must attend her vo\age to Sydney The barquentine Edith May, which sailed oo September 30, took about thirty steerage and four or five cabin passenger?. The majority of these purpose going ashore at Port Darwin to await the opportunity of embarking on board the first steamer for Sydney or other southern ports. Two incidents worthy of note happened as we were beating out of Cambridge Gulf in the Edith May ; and to record them is my chief reason for writing again. The barque Kapido sailed from Wyndham a short time before us. She was bound for Freemantle, and a .New Zealand por>, Wellington, I believe. She carried a large geneial car^ro, some of which was owned by Messrs Rytkogte and Ro3B. On the night before her departure one of the peamen, while in a state of intoxication, fell overboaid and was drowned, search was made for the body, but without success. On the morning of October 1, from the deck of the Edith May, we were watching the barque, then some six miles ahead t>f us, beating ovt of the Gulf. Sho was going about, close in shore, when she suddenly grounded. The tide was half ebb at the time. As we neared the Kapido w«i could see that she was in a very periloua pueiuon, that is us far as ship and cargo were concerned. Of course there was no danger to be apprehended to passengers or crew, the vessel lying within a stone'B throw of terra firma and in smooth water. She had air. ady cauted outwards, and as the banks of the gulf in all places shelve very rapidly, there was every proba bihty of her heeling over completely on her beam ends at low water. In such" a case serious injury to the cargo is to be foared, and it is doubtful if a vessel like the Rapido will stand the strain. The bank on which she grounded was composed of large stones and boulders. We had not long parsed the grounded barque when we sighted j an object floating about half a "mile | to windward. On the next tack we sailed within a few yards of it, and at once discovered that it was the dead body man, swollen to an enormous size, and in buch an advanced stage of decompoßitiou that the effluvium from it wa-s intolerable. Captain Leeman at once gave the order to heave to and lower the boat. Mis orders were promptly obeyed, and the corpse, wrapped in a tarpaulin, was soon in the boat, which, at the end of a long painter, we towed aetern. We anchored that night, and early the following morning the body was ] taken ashore and buried, Captain Leeman ! reading the burial service over it It was the general belief that the body was that of the unfortunate seaman who fell overboard from the Rapido. In this hot climate rapid decomposition and generation of gas would cause the corpse to come to the surface in a much shorter time than in cooler latitudes All on board were of opinion that Captain Leeman had acted with praiseworthy consideration in picking up the body and paying all the respect that lay in his power to the remains of poor Jack. Wyndham was on its last lege as wo left it, and probably it will, before long, come down to one " pub." and a store. It is likely to remain so until the back country is opened up for pastoral purposes, when it fs sure to be the principal port of the north part of Western Australia. Now it is composed of a few stores built of galvanised iron — buildings that in the hot season act as Turkish baths, without the aid of furnace or steam 'pipes. Tnen there are habitations of calico, old tacks, and branches of trees. I have not had a letter or newspaper since my arrival in Wyndham in June last. There seems to have been no system in the mail arrangements. Derby mail bags were sent to Wyndham, and vice versa. To make inquiries about letters, &c, one had first to go to the Customs office, which is only open for a few hours each day. There you have to wait until they catch the acting post-master, whom you follow to an illkept store, the papers and letters are J to be found, the former lying loosely about. All through the Kimberley rush the conduct of the Government of Western Australia has been of the most one-sided nature and unjust towards the diggers. Scarcely anything was done for the convenience of the men who were deluded into going to the " scrapings." There was no post office at any of the camps up the country, although one might have been easily established in a central position to meet the wants of hundreds of men who were anxroua to hear from their homes and friends. No Government officer paid any long visits to the camps, and police seldom appeared. There was no doctor near the scrapings, and in not one instance did the authorities show a desire to meet the wants of those they had deceived into flocking to Kimbjerleyi' At Wyndham there is a "resident,"- a person of ramrod bearing and Bevere Government

••* . '• "* m „i „ < ' ~ ttt; — ; {Official aspect, poasessingthe usual incivility of hie claes, a person who -looks &s if 'he ood- ; eidetedUt a bore to do anything for his 1 pay but to draw »it. ,-, There ore 'Other email fry officials who flifc about dreeeed in helmets and ! gauzey attire, appureritly. very busy doing nothing. Thank heaven I am out of it. I have played my little part/ 1 in the Kirn berley rush, a rush which, for serious, and in some cases ruinoue, consequences to those who participated in it, has never been equalled in the Austmlasian colonies: ' ' Another Fatality. As the Hero was leaving Wyndham, one of the seamen, while heaving the lead, loet his foothold, fell overboard and was drowned. Clothing, colour of hajr, &c M , correspond with tboee of the body picked i up by the Edith May, so that in all probability the corpse buried by Captain Leem'an' was the Hero, and not the Rapido sailor.