RAISING WRECKS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3062, 5 December 1908, Page 4

RAISING WRECKS.

Mr David Gouk, a well-known Aucklander, has , ; a unique record to his credit. Since 1863, when he floated «ie brigantine Au Revoir, which had been wrecked at Waikato Heads, his services have been requisitioned in over sixty wrecks, ranging 'from small boats to ocean-going steamers. The luck has been against him many times (says the "Herald"), and of course there has been a considerable element of danger in the work, but he is still hale and hearty. East j Coast wrecks have given him most trouble. While working on one wrecked steamer a series of tidal waves swept over the ship. When she had been plugged up with bags of flour, there was a hazardous tow across the Bay of Plenty. Off Mercury Bay, thick weather and a heavy sea were encountered, and the wreck-savers could have jumped on to the rocks, so close was their call. Mr Gouk's toughest job was the Taupo, a steamer of 700 tons, which was wrecked on the rocks at the entrance to Tauranga harbour, in the Bay of Plenty, in 1879. After efforts extending over two years,

she was got off, and the Wellington —a beautifully-modelled vessel which is still running out of Auckland — took her in hand. When tha two vessels were two and a half hours out, the water began to gain on tne one pump. Efforts to cope with the inflow proved unavailing, and it soon became a question how long the steamer would float. The men on board, not unnaturally, immediately evinced a desire to make the Wellington. Mr Gouk and the foreman, who stood by him, remonstrated with the men, but they could only induce the engineer to remain. The trio made au heroic effort to get the water under, but the odds were against them, and the faupo slowly commenced to fill. Mr Gouk and his companions had to leave for the decks of the Wellington: Late at night, the vessels being between Mayor Island and the mainland, the bows of the sinking steamer were seen to rise several feet out of water, and the vessel disappeared stern foremost, with a terrifying noise like a heavy thur.der clap. In 1884 Mr Gouk assisted in saving the Triumph, which ran on Tiritiri on her way out for Auckland, and since then his list of successes has been long.