So suddenly did she sink that there was only time to launch one boat and this was smashed in the breakers.
The body of the other man (F. Saunders) a fireman, has been washed up on the beach.
The Karu left Whangape on Saturday with a cargo of timber for Sydney. All then seemed well with the ship, but when a few hours out the little vessel encountered very heavy seas and strained seriously.
Finding that she was leaking badly her commander, Captain W. Richmond, decided to run to the shelter of Cape Maria Van Dieman and, if possible, to beach his vessel in calm water.
When approaching land, however, the leaking vessel began rapidly to settle down and when it was seen she was unlikely to reach the beach, orders were given to lower the boats.
Twelve members of the crew were crowded into one boat and were nearing the shore at the Cape when the boat capsized in the surf and was smashed.
All the men got ashore with the exception of Saunders and Ravenswood, the latter not being seen again after the boat overturned.
There is very little settlement in the region immediately south of the cape and the survivors separated into parties to look for signs of habitation.
One man reached Te Paki station about nine miles from the cape early this morning and this afternoon the captain, the engineer and two other members of the crew also reached the station.
The five remaining men had not been reported at a late hour, although search parties are out.
The Karu was very well known on the New Zealand coast. She was formerly called the Torgauten and, under that name, saw considerable service round the Dominion.
Later she was purchased by the Union Company and renamed the Karu.
Auckland: The latest report tonight states that the Karu, which loaded about 200,000 feet of timber, has drifted ashore at Scott's Point, West Coast, near Cape Maria. She is breaking up badly and the deck cargo is coming ashore.
Five of the survivors who did not reach Te Paki with the other crew this afternoon were found at Spirit's Bay about six this evening in an exhausted condition.
They were taken to Te Hapu on the Peronga harbour where they are being cared for.
Wife deserters’ desserts
Little public sympathy need be wasted on the wife deserter, who is, for obvious reasons, a matter of concern to Hospital Boards.
Resolutions were adopted by the Boards’ Conference urging the Government to provide institutions in which deserting husbands could be employed on remunerative labour for the benefit of their wives and families, and asking it to enforce more strictly the existing legislation dealing with wife deserters and to defray the cost of bringing defaulters of this class back to the Dominion.
One of the greatest difficulties encountered by the Prisons Department is that of finding suitable remunerative work for prisoners.
If one section of the community demands that the prisons should be made self-supporting, another section of it protests strongly against the sale of anything produced by prison labour.
The question to be answered is how much longer concession is to be made to the sentiment against prison labour of a useful kind.
— editorial
— ODT, 2.3.1926
