SHIPWRECK.
LOSS OF THE G. W. WOLFF. THE CAPTAIN DROU^TED. By Cable—Press Associations-Copy right. Melbourne, August 13. A fishing smack arrived from Hummock Island, Bass Straits, with 21 members of the crew of the ship G. W. olfT, bound from Buenos Ayrcs to Newcastle in ballast, which was reported to have been driven ashore in a hcavv gale on Wednesday morning. Captain Thomas was drowned.
At the time of sighting land there was a strong wind and heavy adverso tide. The gale became worse, and the vessel was unable to weather the land, and drove ashore stem on. The big breakers soon beg.in to play havoc with the vessel, whX-li was pounding heavily. Tile mainmast snappe<l and fell overboard, and shortly afterwards the foremast, then the mizzenmast. The crew donned lifebelts as the ship was showing signs of a general break up. The second mate, Pultzke, and three men, after having been many times driven back and badly bruised, managed to cross the seventy yards of broken water to the shore and secured a line. Members of the crew crossed to the land safely. The first mate, Jenkins, had a narrow escape, being swept off the line, but a seaman dived and rescued him. Tt was then discovered that the captain was missing. He was last seen going below, it was supposed to secure the ship's papers. Meantime the main deck opened, and the vessel parted in two. There was no sign of the captain, though the coast was searched. The survivors, who saved only the clothes they were wearing, made their way across the island to where the smack was anchored. They were token aboard and well treated. Before they left the island the wreck had completely disappeared. Mrs. Thomas' father and two brothers, and now her husband, have been drowned at sea.
THE CAPTAIN'S FATE. Received 13, 10.30 p.m. Melbourne, August 13. Another statement says that Captain Thomas was last seen on the poop, with his face covered with blood. It is surmised that he was struck by falling gear and knocked overboard.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TDN19120814.2.28
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 74, 14 August 1912, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
345SHIPWRECK. Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 74, 14 August 1912, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Taranaki Daily News. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in