THE PENGUIN DISASTER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 22, 19 February 1909, Page 4

THE PENGUIN DISASTER.

WHERE IS THE PENGUIN? HIS MAJESTY'S MAILS. LITTLE HOPK OF THEHI RECOVERY. "Fifteen bags and six hampers'' is the brief record of the mails that wcut down iu the Penguin last Friday night. This was fortunately a small mail iu tho light of averaged. The number of bags ailii hampers excludes eight bags and two hampers that were carrying a lot of obsolete aiatiouery from the Nelsun and Blenheim offices. The question in' the possibility of recovering the mails has cropped up, and a representative »f the Dominion called on Mr. W. K. Morris (Acting-Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Office)' to ascertain ■whether any attempt was likely to be made to recover the lost bags. Mr. Morris had nob .beer* behind-hand.

With his usual promptitude he had already had a consultation with Captain Post, of the Tutanekai (who know.s the coast like a book), and Captain Anderson, (Marine Superintendent in Wellington, for the Union Company) on thje subject, and 'both gentlemen had discouragedi most emphatically the prospect of diving for the as suggested (by Mr. A. M. Gow, who had placed Ms up-to-date diving plant at the disposal of the authorities. POSITION OF THE .PENGUIN.. ThS first point that arose was. 'Where is the Penguin?" Captain Savior himself hadi stated tliat he supposed that the Penguin, had struck on Tom's Rock, but that was not by any means clearly established; Both Mr. Frank Shaw, one of the survivoTs, and Mr .1. M'Menamen, ol Terawhiti, have expressed their conviction that the Penguin did' not strike Tom's Rock, basing that conclusion cm the position of the wreckage which strewed the beach on Saturday. These getttletoen state that a good deal of the wreckage splintered into matchwood 1 lay in a position actually south of a point opposite the fatal rock, and to have reached such a point the light fragments of wood would have had to drift against wind, sea, and tide —aa impossibility. What did the steamer strike then? It might have been the Karori shoail or some submerged rock outside the shoal; hut that is mere conjecture. The captain remarked! to <me of the passengers on lanVHng from the 'wreck that he thought his vessel was inside Jackson's Head, tho point a. few miles to the south of where the survivors landed, and, allowing for the drift, it Is concluded that he was> nob so far out, but stHl that did vat settle the .place in the bed of the Strain .where tie Penguin lies. DIVING IMPOSSIBLE.

Both of the master mariners concurred in the belief that the vessel would probably be lying in very deep water, as the Penguin kiidi not sink for some time after she struck, and must have proceeded 1 some distance, and the Admrralty chart gives the depth in the vicinity of Tom's Dock from 17 to 32 fathoms. 'But apart altogether from the idejpth. of the water, there was something even more formidable in the current that rushes unceasingly through the Strait, particularly in its strength on the Tera'whiti side. It was thought •that that element alone would prevent any success attending attempted diving operations in that vicinity. It was strong enough, to prevent a diver keeping the perpendicular, and if he could manage to stand uoright he would be carried along "by the swirling current. dIK. J. IK. LOGAN'S OPINION. 'Mr. J. K. Logan, Director of Electric Lines, who has been, connected with cable-laying operations in New Zealand for a -quarter of a, century, was consultod as to what chance there was for diving fan the Penguin'a mail "No chance at all," ho said, "is is absurd to think of, when one knows the .conditions. The tide runs like a millrace, and you can never tell when it is going to turn in bad'weather. We have calculated when the tide off Terawhili was likely to turn, and have never been able to time the turn." "Where is the steamer; can you tell me that?" said Mr. Logan. "Why, two miles out from Oterangi there is a depth of '7O fathoms, and there I lave known the tide to carry away a cable buoy with three mushroom anchors attached. We aever think of buoying with one anchor in that Joeah'try—always use two and sometimes three."

DOWN IN THE DEPTHS. 'A few miles out from the cahle hut at Oterangi tha bed! of the Strait dips from about 70 fathoms to 106 for a distance, then rises to about 70 fathoms, ami continues at thafc nearly to White's Hay, on the other side. There is a big dip off Lyell Bay where the, bottom sinks to 150 fathoms. It. is like a vallev between two Mount 'Victorias. I know this, for we have had to lav three miles of caUe to cover a section'between two buoys only a mile apart. The only manner in which the Penguin's mails might lie recovered is by the ship being ground to pieces and the icurrent carrying the bags ashore."

Imagination, stretched to aching tension and helped by the direct narratives of survivors, fails to realise in all their malign vividness the dire circumstances of tie scene (says the Dunedin Star). And perhaps nothing is to be gained by Ktrivflag at such imaginative realisation, until we seem to behold the straining plunging ship and the warring waters'. 9.lft the doomed figures of men and women, and! children, and to hear the .bubbling ery of some strong 'swimmer fin his agony." A living poet has pictured a, somewhat simHar spectacle. '• Dark as 1 death, and as white as snow tie sea-swell scowl and shines, Heaves rad yearns and pants for prey, from ravening lip to lip, Strang in rage of rapturous anguish. lines on hurtling lines, ■ Ranks on charging ranks, that break and rend the battling ship. AM the night is mad and murderons : who shall front the night ? Not the brow that labors, helpless a= a storm-blown leaf, ■Where the rocks and waters, darkling ■ depths and beetling height, Eago with, wave on shattering wave and thundering reef on rcei." Those lines are taken from a poem on Gnica Darling, the heroic Northumbrian girl whose mame will be famous'and fragrant as long as the memory of noble deeds endures ; and there is some measure of comfort and consolation in the thought that the spirit of heroism and altruistic greatness was alive and active in that watery inferno off Tcrawhiti on Friday niglit. The wife and mother who lost husband and 1 all four children, vainly striving, through long hours of j-tormy struggle to save her youngest, her baby ; and' yet, in the stress and agony, ifmdiiig time and energy to rescue a boy. somebody else's darling, and to " make Mm comfortable " : what of her? ''Ob! I am so glad that I •wn> " able to save that dear little .boy for his " parents—they will have someone " : who could worthily comment on that superb reflection of a brave, loving woman in the first hour of her five-fold bereavement ? Moreover, this widowed ami childless sufferer was able to notice the heroism of others and to tell its story. "My won! she was a brave woman ! " ia her richly significant account of the conduct of the saloon stewardess: andi again, in a still warmer strain, of the forecabin stewardess—"Oh, my '■ word ! she was brave, helping every- '" one, and so quiet and calm. I never ''saw anyone so brave— 20, never. " never.'' These incidents and records

. serve almost to banish regret, until we ?■ could find it in our hearts to say that such a death (for both Hie courageous stewardesses were (drowned) was happy —" dulce et decorum." Hut it is sad to thuds that onlj' one of nearly twenty women were saved—the stricken anil magnanimous soul to whom reference liaa already hecn made—the boats in which tie women were plated in hope of'safety -proving less secure than tlio frail raifts. Expressions of sympathy with the relatives and friends of the lost may be superfluous, impotent, or inept; but at least they will be irco from the suspicion of mere conventionality ;' for to-day the hearts of the peoplo are thrilling "with sentiments "f sorrow aad pity.

W. Perreira, one of the firemen who was saved from tlie wreck liy means of one of the rafts, tells a graphic incident in connection ■with Friday"* disaster. "Whilst our raft was passing to leeward

of one of the boats, someone on board the boat sang out—' There's only one man ia this boat !' 'Who are you?'

said Perreira. 'l'm Henderson,' came the reply. Just after that a big sea came ' along and overturned the raft, and at \ the same timo swamped the boat. Then \ ag.iin through the gale came a cry—--2 'Everyone's drowned in this boat but me. £ "' Wiho are you V they shouted from the % raft 'l'm Henderson!' were the hist *-" words hoard." Henderson belonged to -(■ Port ChalmiTf. ami was a member of the *"> New Naval Reserve.