WRECKED IN THE PACIFIC.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 October 1922, Page 5

WRECKED IN THE PACIFIC.

AMERICAN SCHOONER LOST. CREW RESCUED FROM ISLAND. Particulars of the wreck of the American schooner Henriette and the rescue of her crew were brought to Auckland by the Union Company’s motor vessel Hauraki, which arrived from San Francisco this week. The Hauraki left Newcastle on August 8 for Honolulu and, San Francisco. On August 16, when passing about 13 miles off Nukulailai Island, in the Ellice Group, a vessel’s masts, with the mainmast broken off,, were sighted close inshore. The Hauraki stood in toward the island to investigate, and when nearing the island a boat pulled by natives, with a white man in the stern, was seen approaching. The white man proved to be Captain Olsen, master of the schooner Henriette, which had been wrecked on the island, and whose masts the Hauraki had sighted. Captain Olsen stated that the Henriette was bound from Rotumah Island, north of the Fiji Group, with a cargo of copra for San Francisco. On July 26, when the schooner was running with a fresh breeze, she ran ashore on the west side of the island at 3.30 in the morning. The schooner was badly holed near the main hatch and was a total wreck. A boat was launched and was with difficulty got away from the wreck. A further difficulty was experienced in landing on an island near, but the boat was piloted by natives through a narrow entrance in the reef. Besides the captain, the Henriette had a erew of seven men, and all were well treated by the natives during their three weeks’ stay on the island. CaptaiiP Olsen and his men were taken by the Hauraki to Honolulu, and were then transferred to an American steamer which took them to San Francisco. The Henriette was an iron fourmaster schooner of 735 tons and was built in France in 1874.