A MYSTERIOUS WRECK.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 321, 1 December 1888, Page 3

A MYSTERIOUS WRECK.

What is believed to havo occurred about a fortnight before the thiee-mastod schooner George Noble, of Sydney, which arrived at Sydney again on the 22nd inst., arrived at an island .named Tarawa, in r,he Gilbert group, was the wreck of an unknown vessel upon the outlying coral leefr. The time is fi>ed by the natives at about 14 days prior to the schooner's arrival, so that would make ifc about the Ist of August last. A • large three-masted wooden vessel was seen approaching 1 sho reel off the islandi There was little ov no sail upon her, bufc such a«5 she had was set to a line breeze, before which she was running, and to the not surpiising puz/led wonderment of the natives ashoro was heading, not towards tho entrance, but straight for the reef itself, as though being deliberately steered to destruc ion. The excitement of. the islanders may easily be supposed to ha\e been at a hi<_:h pitch when in defiance of and complete indifterence to the signalling, the shrieking, and yellb ot warning from the shoie, tho mysterious visitor crashed upon the .-.hilling i*eef. To the increased bewild-' ered perplexity of tho untutored savages, no shipwieckod mariners weieseen to climb tho riaeing, or attempt to save themselves. Doubtless, had anyone so appeared the natives would not have bcou slow to man their canoes and gee out to the reef. It was, howovyr, quite appatent that the ship had been pieviously abar doued. A veiy biiet time oi dashing upon the coral bieakvuicer sufficed to btc.ilc the vessel up, and piec' s> ot floating \\u*ekAge wore after scattered upon the shoie. Of these, two pieces were picked up by the iblandors — one, a boat, upon which was painted the lettoi& X TERRE^. The last part oi the name wao intact, but before the Iv the board was broken oft short. On the otl.ei piece of wood, which was also a broken piece, %\ as the word ROCK, evidently but the portion of a word. The only articles reported to have been washed ashore indicating the nature of the vessel's cargo were an immense number of empty kerosene cases. It was also ascertained that the \essel had neither cables nor anchors on board. Captain Evers says that no clue whatever beyond what i-s given above could be obtained from the information in possession of the natives, and what the name of the vessel was will therefore have to be gathered trom the fragmentary words here quoted. The w hereabouts of her crew or what their fate has. been is even more difficult to determine. Something over three months has elapsed since the occurrence narrated above took place, a period not too long to admit the probability of the crow being safe upon one of the thousands of islands in tho vast Pacific, when the precarious and irregular communication are taken into consideration. The supposed size of the vessel was 1,000 to 1,200 Lon?.