B.S.I. Natives Adrift
p. 50 · Read in the full issue
From a Special Correspondent
Rabaul, Oct. 28.
A SCHOONER from tfew Ireland recently brought to Rabaul three Solomon Islanders, the survivors of a canoe load of six Ontong Javanese, who had been adrift for nearly a month.
Some time ago 14 natives set out from Ontong Java (Lord Howe) in two canoes for the Tasman Group, about 60 miles to the north. During heavy weather the sails carried away and the canoes were swamped, all food being lost overboard. For over three weeks the natives lived on water caught dur ing rain-storms, though some of the exhausted men drank sea-water and died.
Eventually, one canoe with six sur vivors sighted Bougainville, the large island some 500 miles west of Ontong Java, and they got ashore near Kieta.
The other canoe, with three survivors, landed at Anir Island (off the north coast of New Ireland), from whence they were taken to Namatanai, and later brought here to Rabaul.