WRECK ON THE MACQUARRIES

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 236, 10 February 1911, Page 5

WRECK ON THE MACQUARRIES

THE JESSIE NICCOL.

By Telegraph.—Press Association. Invercargill, Last Night.

Details of the wreck of the Jessie Niccol are necessarily somewhat meagre, but the" story, so far as it can be gathered, is this: After the "marooning" of the oil seekers last year, the Jessie Niccol was sent down for oil which had been left there, some of which she brought back on December 8 last. She again left here for the Islands with another party of oil seekers and to bring back the balance of the stofed oil.

To-day the auxiliary schooner Huinui, from Campbell Islands, brought to the Bluff the news of her wreck. The manager of the sealing station at The Campbells had communicated to Captain Mcßride, of the Huinui, that the Nova Scotian sailing ship Ida M. Clark had called in and informed him that when passing the Macquarries she had been signalled for, and the captain intormed that the Jessie Niccol, while at anchor, had been caught in a north-easterly gale and, her cables parting, had been driven on to the rocks and wrecked, and that her master, Captain Holms, the first mate Patterson, and the cook Mercer, had been drowned. When the accident happened the balance of the crew and the other men who had been on board had safely landed, but the captain, mate and the cook were drowned through the boat in which they tried to make the shore capsizing, while those on shore looked on powerless, to help. Next day the captain's body was recovered and buried on the island. Captain Gilbert, of the Ida M. Clark, offered to take the remaining men to Campbell Island, but they refused, saying that they were well and had plenty of provisions. Invercargill, Later.

The Jessie Niccol was a wooden boat, 93 tons net, and was built at Auckland in-1872. Mr. Hatch acquired her five years ago, and she has been trading for him exclusively between Macquarrie Islands an3i Invercargill. In 1903, it may be remembered, she was in collision with the Rotomahana at Wellington, and was afterwards repaired. The long detention of the oil seekers last year wan due to the vessel being unable to make the islands when stie went down for them. She then returned to the Bluff in such a strained condition that repairs cost Mr. Hatch £4OO. She was not insured', as Lloyds refused to accept a risk on a pureiy sailing vessel trading in the Southern Seas. Mr. Hatch estimates his loss on the vessel alone at £750. He says he will take prompt steps to bring back the remaining men, chartering either the Huinui, the Hinemoa, or the Ilolmdalc, of Wellington. The men on the island, he says, have plenty of stores, and he has no anxiety on that score.