Image created for creatative purposes by Cruden Bay Life
An article from THE REGISTER, a newspaper published in Adelaide, Australia, on Saturday, 20th January 1912.
WRECK OF WISTOW HALL
TERRIBLE EXPERIENCES
Further particulars have been received concerning the wreck of the Wistow Hall. The steamer left Jarrow on Monday. She encountered heavy seas, which destroyed her funnel, broke her boats, and extinguished the fires in the engine room. Buffeted and battered by the storm, the vessel drifted helplessly. The crew were without food or drink for three days. Unable to reach the forecastle, they were all huddled together in the engine room when the steamer struck the rocks.
A lifeboat crew from Port Erroll made gallant efforts to rescue the Wistow Hall’s crew, who were found clinging to ropes, ventilators, and derricks, but the heavy breakers made rescue impossible. Fishermen waded into the boiling surf knee-deep and dragged ashore Captain Stoddart and three lascars.
Captain Stoddart revived after some hours’ artificial respiration. He stated that he had been confined to his cabin with a broken arm and internal injuries from the time of the vessel striking, and he remembered nothing of the events until he found himself ashore.