Wreck of the Gunge. GALLANTRY OF THE LIFEBOAT CREW. A Plucky Pilot

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 216, 20 August 1887, Page 2

Wreck of the Gunge. GALLANTRY OF THE LIFEBOAT CREW. A Plucky Pilot

Shortly before midnight on .Saturday, July HOth, the Austrian barque Gauge, 1,071 tons', bound from London to Melbourne with a cargo of railway iion, cement, and sulphur, was stranded on Point Lonsdale Reef while trying to make the Heads. On the alarm being given, the Queeufcuiiff lifeboat was quickly manned and s-ent to the relief of the ill-fated Aes.sul, but the wind and the sea were too high for the crew to attempt to succour tho^e on board until daylight, when the arduous task of lescuing 19 persons, including the crew and captain's wife, was accomplished. The vessel was diiven on the reef by a westeily wind, which has prevailed since she struck, partly helped by the rising tide. It wjis on the outride portion of the outer reef that the vessel struck, with her stem pointing dii ectly at the Lighthouse. When she struck the stern went down into the deepest pai t of the water, and lifted the stem above the water line, so that refuge was found on its highest point for the captain's wife, a girl of IS, who was making her honeymoon voyage with him. The unfoitunate gill was awakened out of sleep, and had only time to wrap herself in a blanket in the tcuttled cabin when her husband carried her to the deck on the forecastle, where she was dienched with the blinding spray. .She lemained there all through the cold night, suileiing from exposure and danger with unflinching fortitude. The sailors clung to the ligging for many weary hours until daylight, when the lifeboat was able to save them. The lifeboat was manned by voluntcerß from Queenscliff. It was mining heavily, and was pitch dark, but the men bent to their oars with a will for a two-mile pull. When the boat got near the stranded vessel they could hear cties, but could see no one. The boat was then taken round the stern into open water, and backed to within hailing distance. At the first streak of daylight the lifeboat diopped anchor and paid out a line from the stem, thus keeping the boat's head to sea It gradually drifted towards the barque, but was some distance broadside from her. The sailois threw out ropes, which were fastened to the stem and stern of the lifeboat. Again and again the lifeboat, swinging buoyantly as a cork on the three long lines, was lifted momentarily by the waves against the Gange, and each time she did so a sailor jumped in. The strangers behaved splendidly, and there was no scrambling among them to leave the doomed vessel. One after another filled the vacant place on the ladder, and watched the moment to jump. Without betraying excitement the captain's ■wife held on to the ladder with the sea seething beneath her for some minutes till she was told to let go. Then she dropped safely into the arms of two of the crew of the lifeboat. A moment's hesitation and she would have dropped into the sea. Presently the captain followed, and his little wife, frail as she Mas, held up her arms to catch him, bub fortunately for her he did not fall into them. -At last the whole 19 were rescued, and the lifeboat leaking through having thumped against the vessel, made a good run back to Queenscliff, where their arrival was hailed with enthusiasm. The gallant fellows in the lifeboat stood by four or five hours in utter darkness, with, the spray washing over them the whole time. The water numbed their fingers as they lay on the oars.