PERILOUS VOYAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 January 1916, Page 3

PERILOUS VOYAGE.

SUPPOSED FISHERMEN. WRECKED AT PHILIPPINES. The Manila Daily Bulletin of November !) contains a remarkable story regarding two supposed Australian fishermen who are said to have made a voyage from Sydney to the Philippine Islands in a iO-ton open boat. The men's names are given as Harry Straton and George Hamilton, and they stated that they left Sydney on August 10 in the cutter Sydney. They proceeded to Port Darwin, thence to Sandaken, Balabac, Puerto Princess, and Bacolod, their craft being eventually wrecked on the reefs at Fortune Island, in the Phillippine Group, in October last.

The two men remained on Fortune Island, with little to eat or drink, for ten days, and were eventually picked up by a part ; of FiUipino fishermen, who conveyed them in their fishing vinta, the Eliza, to Puerto Vardero,' ten miles west of Calapan, Mindoro. There they were taken on board the inter-island steamer Islas Filipinas, which brought the two navigators to Manila, where they arrived on November 1.

The captain of the Islas Filipinas said that lie brought Straton and Hamilton from Puerto Yaradero, Mindoro, but lie could not believe thoso two men could have made their way in a ten-ton open Iboat from Sydney, Australia, to the Phillipines. Nevertheless, the story told by the survivors of the cutter Sydney lias been confirmed so far as it has been investigated. Straton and Hamilton, being Australians, were taken to see Mr Harrington, the British consul in Manila, who is investigating the matter with a view to securing their return to Australia. At the British Consulate the following statement was made: — "The story told by the two men was so minute in detail that wc were at first more inclined to doubt it than if there had been some discrepancies in it. But they mentioned two Americans whom they had met and conversed with at one of the places they visited in the Southern Philippines. The two Americans have since been located, and have confirmed that part of the story relating to them.. We are making enquiries at all of the places at which the men said they stopped, and, as far as the investigation lias gone, their story has been verified. They appear to be British subjects and what they represent themselves to be, and there seems to be no cause for suspicion about their mission here.'' When asked what their purpose was in undertaking the voyage from Sydney, the two mariners, who described themselves as fishermen, said they started out for Port Darwin, on the* northern coast of Australia, to engage in pearl fishing; but, so far as could be learned, they were not equipped to carry on this industry.