A thrilling story of the sea is that telling of the rescue of the survivors of the Pitcairn Island away back in 1906. the Pitcairn Island was a British barque of 1359 tons, built in 1888 at Glasgow, and owned by Stuart Bros., of that city. On March 19, 1906, she left Wellington, in command of Captain H. J. Fletcher, via Cape Horn, for London, with a cargo of wool and flax on board. When roughly about 14O0 miles west of the Horn she was found to be on fire aft-flax and wool was always a dangerous cargo in those days, from some cause or other—and the crew had to abandon her. Strangely enough, the Norfolk Island, owned by the same firm, was also burned at sea.

The outbreak on the Pitcairn Island was discovered at 3 o'clock on the morning of May 3, but it must then have been burning unobserved for a long while, because in brief time the ship was nothing less than a furnace. The captain and twelve of the crew in his boat landed at Maullin, on the coast of South America, after a terrible fortnight, but the mate's boat, with eight of the crew on board, was never heard of again.

Describing the disaster, the second mate (Mr. T. Heron) said that all hands were called out when, at 3 a.m., the outbreak was discovered, but all they could do was in vain. Half-naked men worked at the pumps and formed a bucket brigade, but gradually they were driven back. The pitch boiled from the wooden decks. so fierce was the heat in the holds, the entrances to which had been closed down to save the crew from suffociation by the blinding volumes of smoke that issued from the raging inferno below. Eight hours after the fire had been discovered the men had to leave the ship.

A graphic story of the sufferings of the men in the captain's boat was told by a young New Zealander who was one of the survivors.