WHERE IS THE PENGUIN?

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2431, 20 February 1909, Page 6

WHERE IS THE PENGUIN?

HIS MAJESTY’S MAILS

LITTLE HOPE OF T.ITEIR RECOVERY.

“Fifteen mail bags and six lnun-p.-rs" is .tiio brief record of the mails that went down in tho Penguin last Friday night (says the ‘‘Dominion”). This was fortunately a small mail Blithe light of averages. The number of bags and hampers mentioned excludes eight bags and two hampers that wore carrying a Jot of obsolete stationary from Nelson and Blenheim offices. The question of the possibility of recovering tho mails has cropped ri" and a representative of this paper called yesterday on Air. AV. It. Morris (Acting-Secretary of the Post and Telegraph Office) to ascertain whether any attempt was likely to be made to recover the lost-bags. Air. Morris has not been behindhand. "With his usual promptitude he had already had a consultation with Captain Post, of the Tntanekai (who knows tho coast like a book), and Captain Anderson (Afarine Superintendent in Wellington for tho Union Company) on tho subject, and both gnitleinen had discouraged most emphatically the prospect of diving for the mails, as suggested by Air. A. AI. Cow, who had placed his up-to-date diving plant at the disposal of tho authorities. POSITION OF THE PENGUIN.

The first point that arose was, “Where is tlie Penguin?” Captain Naylor himself had stated tlia-t lie oapposed that the Penguin struck on Tom’s. Rock, but that was not by any

means clearly established. Both Air. Frank Shaw, one of the survivors, and Mr. John AlcMenamin, of Terawhiti, had expressed their conviction that tlie Penguin did not strike Tom’s P.oc'k, basing that conclusion on the wreckage which strewed the beach on Saturday. These gentlemen state that a good deal of wreckage splintered into matchwood Jay in' a position actually south of a point opposite the fatal rock, and to have reached such a point the light fragments of wood would have had to drift against wind, sea, and tide—an impossibility. Where

did the steamer strike then? It.might have been the Karori slioal or some submerged rock outside the shoal ; but that is mere conjecture. The Captain remarked-to one of the passengers on landing from the wreck that he thought his vessel was inside Jackson’s Head, the point a few miles to the south of where the survivors landed. and, allowing for the drift, it is concluded that lie was not far out, hut still that did not settle the place in tiio bod of the Strait where tho Penguin lies. DIVING lAIPOSSIBLE.

Both of the master manners concurred in the belief that tho vessel would probably be lying in very deep water, as tho Penguin did not sink for some time after she struck, and must have proceeded some distance, and the Admiralty chart gives the depth in the vicinity of- Tom’s Rod; from 17 to 32 fathoms. But apart altogether from tlie depth of water, there was something even more formidable in the eu'rrenb that rushes unceasingly through tho Strait, particularly iii its strength on the Terawhiti side. It was thought that that element alone would prevent any success attending attempted diving operations in that vicinity. It was strong enough, from, all accounts, to prevent a diver keeping perpendicular, and if he could manage to stand upright he would be carried along by the swirling current.

AIR. J. K. LOGAN’S OPINION. Air. J. K. Logan, Director of Elec trie Lines, who has been connected with cable-laying operations in New Zealand for a quarter of a century, was consulted as to what chance there was for diving for the Penguin’s mail. “No chance at all,” lie said; “it is absurd to think of it, when one knows tiio conditions. The tide runs like a mill-race, and you can never tell when it is going to turn to bad .weather. We have calculated when the tide off Tora. whiti was likely to turn, and have never been able to time the turn.” “"Where is the steamer; can you tell me that?” said Air. Logan. “Why, two miles out from Oterangi there is a depth of 70 fathoms, and there 1 have known the tide to carry away a cable buoy with three mushroom anchors attached. AYe never think of buoying with one anchor in tiiat locality—always use two and sometimes three.” DOWN IN THE DEPTHS.

“A few miles out from the cable hut at Oterangi the bed in the Strait dips from about 70 fathoms to 106 for a distance, then rises to about 70 fathoms’, and continues that nearly to White’s Bay, on the other side. There is a big drop off Lyoll Bay, where the bottom sinks to 150 fathoms.- It is like a valley between two Mount Victorias. I know this, for we have had to lay three miles of cable to cover a section between two buoj's only a mile apart. The only manner in which the Penguin’s mails might be recovered is by the ship boing ground to pieces, and the current carrying the bags -ashore.”