Amazing Escape

Survivors Swam for Eight Hours After Papuan Ketch Lost

■p’VIDENCE given recently at the Go vernment inquiry into the loss several months ago of the ketch Lytton and nine natives in Eastern Papua showed that the master, Mr. Bruce Hamilton, and Sealass, a young native were amazingly lucky to reach the shore safely.

With a crew of five, the 18-tons schooner was sailing under jib and mizen for Sama rai with 16 recruits. At 8.30 a.m., two and a half hours after leaving East Cape, Mr. Hamilton went below, leaving the boss boy at the wheel. Suddenly a waterspout hit the vessel and a terrific whirl of wind and spray enveloped her. With a jerk, her stern lifted, and she rolled over with the starboard side under.

Panic-stricken, the natives jumped into the sea and were too terrified to help the master when he rushed on deck to get on© of the two lift, dinghies clear. Within a few minutes the Lytton was engulfed, with both boats.

Land was six miles away; with the aid of the boss boy, Mr. Hamilton got the natives together and the 22 men set out on a long landward swim. Within half an hour a howling squall of wind and blinding rain swept upon them, and, in the cori fusion, the swimmers separated. When it cleared Mr. Hamilton found that only two boys were still with him, including the 14-years-old Sealass.

A breaking sea was running, making swimming almost impossible, but the three men battled on. Another squall struck them, and one of the natives was drowned.

"With the aid of a kerosene case, Mr.

Hamilton and Sealass kept on, grimly mak ing for the land in spite of several shark scares. After almost eight hours in the water, they came within 300 yards of the shore in the Killerton Islands. Natives working for a trader, Mr. Harry Reid, paddled out in a canoe, and the exhausted pair hung on to the craft until they were taken through the sweeping surf.

Of the 18 natives who had been separated from Mr. Hamilton just after the disaster, 10 managed to struggle ashore about a mile further along.