Papeete Schooner Wrecked
p. 12 · Read in the full issue
In Treacherous Tuamotus
From Our Own Correspondent
Papeete. Mar. 14.
The schooner Alto of Papeete is r~- * ported to have been wrecked on thp island of Raraka, 270 miles north-east of Tahiti.
Raraka is one of the Tuamotu Islands marked on maps as the Dangerous Archipelago. The group is notorious as the graveyard of many ships, and is re puted to be depository of ailing vessels which have arrived at the evening of their usefulness.
Officers of most insurance companies look with basilisk eyes on applications for marine insurance in these waters.
Trans-Pacific steamers navigate north of latitude 4 S. or far south of the tropic of Capricorn, in order to avoid the reefs, strong currents and intricate channels of the Tuamotus.
During 10 years (1924 1934) 35 schooners from Tahiti alone were wrecked in the Tuamotus.