Trading Schooner

Wrecked

Novelist N. Hall Cast Away in Oceania

From Our Own Correspondent.

Papeete, Nov. 2.

NEWS has been received in Tahiti that the local trading schooner “Pro Patria,’’ which left Papeete for Pitcairn Island nearly three months ago, is now a total wreck on the island of Timoe, a small uninhabited atoll south-east of Mangareva, and that the passengers and crew are all safe.

Further details regarding the wreck are lacking, but it is surmised that the schooner went ashore during a severe storm known to occur some time in Sep tember.

As stated in recent notes, Mr. Norman Hall, the novelist, was a passenger on the “Pro Patria,” and there were also some other Americans and two French ladies aboard.

The non-appearance of the vessel caused considerable anxiety in Papeete, so that the Administration despatched the training schooner “Zeelee” to search the Tuamotus for news, with the abovemen tioned result. The castaways were taken to Hao Island by the Zeelee, and now await the steamer “Ville de Papeete,” for final transportation to Papeete. They are expected here about November 14. It is stated that the value of the “Pro Patria” and her cargo of trading goods is cov ered by insurance.

EDITORIAL NOTE: Mr. Hall recently col laborated with Mr. Nordhoff in the successful new novel “Mutiny,” in which is retold the fascinating tale of the Bounty mutiny. This was the first of a trilogy planned by the distinguished American writers. The second book will describe Bligh’s historic voyage in the open boat; and the third will break entirely new ground by telling of what happened on Pitcairn in the first decade after the Bounty was cast away—an almost in credible story of cruelty and lust. Mr. Hall was on his way to Pitcairn, in connection with the latter book, when the “Pro Patria” was wrecked.