THE KIA ORA WRECKED.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 302, 17 December 1908, Page 2

THE KIA ORA WRECKED.

OJ) , JF KAYVAU ISLAND. , THREE MEN DROWNED. ''. By Telegraph.—l'resa Association. Auckland, Wednesday. The scow Kia Ora struck a rock oil" Kawau last night. Three lives were lost. The victims were Captain Edward Piercy, aged 35, a married man, "whose wife lives at Auckland; his son James | I'iercy, about 30 years of age; and the cook of the vessel (Thomas Young, son of Archibald Young, shipwright, of Auckland). One seaman was saved. The Kia Ora was owned by Macklow Bros., of Auckland. She was bound from Ngungiiru to Auckland, loaded with logs. Auckland, Last Night. The Herald correspondent at ljeigh telegraphs:—"About midnight on .Monday, during the heavy gale that raged on the coast, the Kia Ola went ashore on a jutting reef on the outer side of Kawau Island. The sole survivor states that she struck at about 12.15 in an intense darkness, and with a heavy sea running. At the time it was impossible to see the bow of the vessel. The captain, thinking himself well clear of Kawau Island, and wishing to keep clear of the Canoe Hock, altered his couivo two points to starboard. Almost immediately after the scow struck a submerged rock and was immediately swept by a huge sea, which smashed her against the rocks, carrying her spars overboard. The cook was swept away by the same wave, and was never seen again. The vessel started to break ip, and the captain and his son, with the -survivor found themselves clinging to a rock which was being swept by occasional seas and a cease( less spray. The tide was falling, and so later on they were less in danger' of being washed oil", but the cold wind I and spray kept them in a state of helplessness and misery. At length, when daylight broke, the survivor said, he would not stay there to be drown'd, by the incoming' fide, lie struck out for the shore, and after 20 minutes' swimming he landed ashore at the foot of the steep dill' fairly exhausted. Ho looked back after clambering tip the el ill" a little way, but could see nothing , of the other two either in the water o" on the rocks, and it can only be surmised that they followed his example and tried to swim ashore, or were washed from their hold, by a big wave. They were not seen again. The survivor climbed painfully up the cliff on what little precarious holding he could find, and eventually reached a cottage, where he was received and welcomed, and news sent in to the Knwan Mansion House. The survivor is naturally much exhausted, but was reported well at the time the s.s. Kawau left Kawau Island for Omaha. The vessel is broken into sov- ! era] pieces, one part of the hull hcing upside down, while the forepart is aslant inside tiro rock she struck, and the deckhouse ashore further along."