Adventurous Scotsman’s

Death How San Christoval, S.I., Was Named

THE death in Auckland Hospital on March 5 of Andrew Swan (known also as Thomas Hamilton) closed the ad venturous life of a Scotsman who for 44 years had wandered around the world, spending many years in the South Seas.

Leaving Glasgow in 1887, he sailed into the South Pacific, and for 10 years led an eventful sea-faring life. Swan’s most fateful voyage was when he signed on the barque Elm at Newcastle in January, 1898. When 28 days out of Newcastle, there was a sudden alarm of fire. From two o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock in the evening, all hands fought the flames, and then took to the boats.

Mr. Swan, with the ship’s cook, the carpenter, two able seamen and the sail maker, were in one boat, and took an other boat in tow, filled with stores.

They sighted an island the same after noon and grounded their boats on a shingle beach.

That Island, which was uninhabited, was to be their home for over two years.

The castaways built a substantial shel ter for themselves and by a freak of cur rents and tides the hull of the Elm was brought off the shore of the island, and was towed in and beached.

Rescue came unexpectedly after two years. The party woke early one morn ing to find that a Portuguese barque had anchored off the island to obtain fresh fruit and water. The shipwrecked sailors departed on the ship, and the island was named San Christoval, after it. The barque continued her voyage to Suva and some weeks later arrived at Auckland.

After working in Auckland as a flax cutter for some time, he became a profes sional diver, and in that capacity was em ployed in various Islands centres and overseas. *ln 1903 he was back in New Zealand as a searcher for ambergris.

Finding the occupation profitable, he •made several thousand pounds, and again travelled extensively in Australia, the Pacific Islands, and the Malay Peninsula.

Finally, in 1931, he returned to England to spend his declining years quietly. But the urge to wander -was too strong, and he set out again, arriving in New Zea land in January of this year.

Mr. W. H. Carpenter, of Messrs. W. R.

Carpenter and Co. Ltd., returned to Aus tralia from a business visit to Thursday Island by the Merkur on March 26.