The Elingamite.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 284, 18 November 1902, Page 1

The Elingamite.

Auckland, November 14

H.M.S. Penguin has picked up the missing raft with eight survivors, who are rapidly recovering. , Eight died on the raft. I The raft was found at 4 p.m. yesterday. The survivors had nothing but two apples frcm the time they left the wreck. The survivors will recover.

The raft was picked up 6G miles E. liy N. % N. from the scene of of the wreck at 4 p.m. on Thursday. The survivors bad been on the raft since II o’clock on ounday. Those on the raft had nothing but two apples. They used one apple on Tuesday and one on Wednesday, each apple being cut into Bxt eo pii ces. There were 19 persons on the raft when it left the wreck. They hailed the purser's dinghy and put three men on board of the dingy. The raft got clear of the land immediately after leaving the wreck and never saw it again. It drifted and was paddled till picked up. The persons on hoard had only one launch oar and a skiff oar. The nanative of the finding of the Elingtimite’s raft with eight survivors out of sixteen who had sought safety upon it last Sunday morning, is briefly told by one of ithe lieutenants of the Penguin. Ho said that cn Thursday afternoon, when the Penguin was about 60 miles north-east of the Three Kings, the bottom boards of a boat and other wreckage were seen in the water. Shortly afterwards one of the men stationed at the mast head sang out that a raft was in sight. At seven minutes past 4 o’cteck the steamer was alongside the raft and it • was seen that several of its occupants were alive. The sailors on board gave three cheers at the sight and the men on the raft gave an answering cheer. Only one man w.is standing on the raft. Three men were kneeling down and the remainder were crouched in sitting positions. The ! men and the raft were taken on board. The men were in a very feeble condition, and some of them were too dazed to give intelligent answers to questions. Some of the men stated that some hours before they, whilst on the raft, had seen a steamer approach, and that a boat had been lowered from it and had come near them, but did not pick them up. Others Baid that they had certainly seen a steamer but did not mention the fact of a boat being lowered. The survivors from the raft relate that the number of people on the raft after leaving the sunken Elingamite was sixteen. Out of this number seven passengers and one of the crew of the Elingamite alone survived. The chief officer of the Elingaraite, who arrived by the Clansman, Isays that good sights were got the day. before the wreck, but at the time of the casualty the fog was as thick as pitch. One of the pasaengeis says he noticed that shortly before the captain seemed restless and anxious, and was peering all round with his glasses. Another phase of the Elingamite disaster was made known to-day when the news came that H.M.S. Penguin was returning to Auckland with the survivors of the missing raft. Thousands of people awaited her arrival, eager to know who were among the saved. When the Penguin steamed into the Waitemata boats and launches put off in shoals and the wharves were lined with thousands of people among whom were many who had friends and relatives reported as “ missing.” There was little for these anxious people to see or learn. The man of war lay out in the stream and only those privileged to board her could witness the pathetic sight of men who had suffered agony and privation for nearly five days on a partly submerged raft without food, without water, who had seen more than half of their company die bnfore their eyes, and who had given up hope themselves. Only one of the survivors, Mr Neale, was visible on deck. He reclined in a wicker chair in the shelter of the bridge, a strong man done almost to death by hunger and thirst and exposure. Mr Neale, who was a passenger, had seen his wife and child safely into a boat soon after the Elingamite struck and had then plunged overboard and reached the raft which with sixteen people on board drifted out under that fatal mist —fifteen men and one woman, Miss McGuirk, the stewardess, adrift on a mere framework of boards with two apples among them for food, one oar, one rowlock and a broken paddle with whioh to fight against the winds and tide that bore them reluctantly from the i land. Mr Neale lay feeble and worn and scarred on the deck chair. The seven other men were lying on pallets in the chart room, these eight being the sole survivors of sixteen who had found as they thought a haven on the raft. The picture of that chart room was one j not easily to be forgotten. In a subdued light those seven men reclined in different positions, each t one showing plainly the marks of terrible suffering—skin burnt and blistered on their faces, their eyes bloodshot and itrained ‘with salt

brine and long g.zng over an empty sea for succour t.ha‘. was s> long in coming ; their fee. and egs so tender and raw from exposure to salt water and sun as to be unable to bear the weight of their cover- ; ings, were visible, and it maile shudder to look at them and to thus realise what agony these 1 1men must have endured. It was 'jpathetic to witness the meetings 11 between those poor sufferers and 1 their old comrades. One strong man i knelt down by a pallet and held a ;|mate tenderly by the wrist and sobbed as he endeavoured to tell . the poor sufferer the grim tidings i of those who had gone down for . ever. The second mate of the • Elingamite stooped over Mr Mallin, ! ,who was in an emaciated condition, land Mr Mallin feebly asked questions as to those who were saved and those who were lost. One 1 formerly stalwart fellow, so weak | that he could scarcely move, asked [ eagerly for news. The Penguin’s doctor, however, sternly forbade too, ; much conversation, for the starved and worn-out men were not in a ■ condition to talk much, and after- * wards all visitors were ordered to leave the chart room. The story J these poor fellows had to tell could never be expressed in words, for ; thay had passed through an agony too great for language. They had seen eight of their comrades perish, some mad through thirst, some utterly exhausted by their sufferings, and their experience was simply an example of marvellous endurance under fearful conditions. They could tell in brief words how one after another of their comrades died, and how each death lightened the half sunken raft. The stewardess, Miss McGuirk, died on Wednesday nigot, and wss buried ; in the sea on Thursday morning, i The wonder is that a woman could have lasted so long under such trying conditions. Some of those who died were not even known by name. Some, terrible to relate, ‘ died raging mad, plunging into the sea to end their sufferings. All the horror of ,ihose helpless days of exposure on an open ocean will never be really known. On the deck of the Penguin lashed to the port bulwarks was the raft which had carried these people on their terrible voyage. The structure is about 12 feet long by about seven or eight feet wide, consisting of narrow wooden battens nailed longitudinally between two long round canvas floats. It did not take much imagination to imagine , the condition of sixteen people on that frail craft; they must have . been half submerged nearly all the ! time, and had no shelter from wind ’or rain or sun ; every wave muat have washed them, every motion of 1 the ever moving platform must ' have buried them; there could have been bo rest on its narrow board, night or day, and in addition to this, days and nights of hunger and thirst, of cold and fatigue, of sickness and hopelessness. The story ' of their rescue by the Penguin is simply told in the ship’s log : “ S.S. Omapere spoke Penguin within cannon-shot of the raft, and turned from its hopeless search. The Penguin went on, and the persistence of its commander in his humane search was rewarded. At 3.50 p.m. on Thursday a man at : the Penguin’s masthead espied the raft. It was then about 63 miles E.N. of the Three Kings, where it bad parted from the sunken Elingamite, and 40 miles north-east of North Cape of New Zealand. A.t seven minutes past 4 o’clock the Penguin was alongside the raft. The sailors on board gave three cheers when they saw that there were people still alive, and the occupants of the raft gave a feeble cheer m return. The raft and men were hoisted on board the warship. The men were placed in chairs on the deck whilst beds were being prepared for them in the chart room, and Dr McLean and others gave the sufferers every attention that could be given. The Penguin headed for Auckland, and brought them into harbour as quickly as the vessel could steam.” To-morrow morning the survivors of the wreck will be taken to the Auckland Hospital. All with one exception are improving. It is possible that the missing boat went east in the fog. The lighthouse-keeper at Cape Maria reports that passing vessels are keeping a good look out. The Sterling returned to Russel l , and reports that she saw nothing of the missing boat. Dunedin, November 14. A committee has been set up, with the Mayor at its head, to raise subscriptions for the relief of the sufferers by the wreck of the Elingamite.

Sydney, November 14. The news of the finding of the raft created much excitement. There were some pathetic scenes amongst the relatives and friends of the missing. Little information is available about the dead. The Shipwreck Belief Society has cabled to Auckland funds for supplying the crew with clothing to the value of £3 and officers to JBS. Wellington, November 15. Messrs Huddart, Parker and Co. have notified that they will contribute £SOO to the fund for the relief of the sufferers by the wreck of the Elingamite.

Gisborne, November 16. Captain Smith, of the Mararoa, is of opinion that the Elingamite's missing boat may have drifted into the Bay of Plenty, and on the voyage north will keep a sharp lookout,'