Oceans and Seas

the work of author Michael Krieger

Covered by the Sea: Surviving a Hurricane – Part 23

Posted on Feb 10, 2017

Covered by the Sea: Surviving a Hurricane – Part 23

On Thursday, Ellenden sat on the beach talking to Bruce Robertson, who had left on the Taipi, and, since the schooner had never reached Manihiki where he expected to be dropped, was back.  He told Ellenden that water was very low on the Taipi, and that the situation for both food and water on board had been desperate with only a few caught fish and coconuts to eat.  Robertson said that when they finally had gotten close to anchorage and realized where they were, it appeared to them from the devastation and the fact that they saw only one native on the beach (Nahora spearing fish), that the rest were probably corpses.

Clark said that after everyone had lunch, he and Cambridge had a “council of war.”  Then the captain had two of his men take the Taipi’s small boat and go out fishing to help augment the group’s food supply.

There seemed to be no end to the arguing that took place.  During the next few days Clark lambasted Nahora for starting work late.  Frisbie, who has been cutting firewood to fuel the distiller, accused Clark of not helping with this laborious chore.  Clark screamed back that he and his men had been helping.  Captain Cambridge accused Powell (behind his back) of not doing the work he promised to do on the Taipi.  Clark shrugged his shoulders; what was he expected to do about it.  Cambridge demanded a large amount of the New Zealanders’ food supply in return for taking Powell to Palmerston, and for taking the Frisbies, Pratt, Robertson and Nahora to Rarotonga.  Clark was irate at Cambridge’s demands, and this resulted in another screaming match.  Even poor Ellenden, who wanted nothing more than to repair his beloved radio equipment, noted, “Seems to be a lot of squabbling going on between everybody.”

Jimmy, Teophilo and Nahora all wanted to leave with the Taipi.  They claimed that they were being underpaid and that they had not received their allotment of tobacco.  Also they couldn’t have been very happy with Clark’s overbearing behavior.  In order to get them to stay, Clark promised them a new labor contract that included raises and a greater share of the remaining tobacco.  Teophilo and Jimmy accepted the new offer; Nahora did not.  Clark told him that by leaving before his labor contract was up, the government could force him to pay for his passage back to Rarotonga.  Nahora said that he didn’t care.  He was leaving anyway.

Evidently Cambridge won out in his demands for food.  Clark begrudgingly gave him meat, coffee beans, flour and ship’s biscuits.  However the supplies would be deducted from the passenger payment Cambridge was to receive from the government in Rarotonga.   Also Cambridge demanded more meat, flour, carrots, and oatmeal or he refused to carry Pratt and Powell.  Probably Clark thought that price was a bargain just to get rid of them.  Clark also provided the Taipi with two drums of water.

Thursday, the 19th, the day of sailing was hot without a breath of wind.  At 10 a.m., all the Frisbies, except for Johnny, as well as Pratt, Powell and Nahora were aboard.  Robertson was still ashore awaiting correspondence from those remaining on Suwarrow.  He and Clark rowed out at about 11:30 a.m., and Clark returned at noon.   Still, the Taipi remained at its anchorage until at about 4 p.m., with all the passengers on board, it nosed slowly around anchorage where the men looked for the remains of Pratt’s boat.  Finally at dusk, it rode the outgoing tide through the passage with almost no assistance from its home-made sails.

Now that there were only four people left on the island, water was no longer a serious issue.  Also, there had been some heavy rain showers recently and that added to their stores. In all, they still had plenty of water even after given two drums of it to Cambridge and his passengers.

The next day a major discovery was made.  They found a chicken’s nest hidden under some debris.  In the nest were four eggs. Clark says that there were five surviving chickens including a rooster that they killed for the pot.  There were also two pigs that somehow made it through the hurricane, but one of the poor creatures was slaughtered by Cambridge’s crew, who loaded the meat on the Taipi.  Clark had agreed to this, probably because they had little with which to feed the pigs and it was questionable how long they could be kept alive.

On Saturday, Ellenden finally picked up scraps of distant broadcasts on his receiver.   First he heard an American station, then someone, probably Palmerston, calling Wellington.  He worked late into the night but was not able to hear anything from Rarotonga.  He said that he finished his work with a headache.

Next (part 24) >>