More Dead Than Alive, Waipukurau Press, 2 June 1931

More Dead Than Alive^[1][]

STOWAWAY DISCOVERED[]

ON BOARD MAKURA[]

(Per Press Association)[]

WELLINGTON, This Day.[]

More dead than alive, a Chinese stowaway was discovered on board the Makura a day before the ship arrived at San Francisco on its last eastward trip. The story of the discovery was told by a member of the ship’s company when the Makura returned to Wellington yesterday.

“We were on the last stage of the voyage from Papeete to ’Frisco,” he said, “and were doing lifeboat drill the day before we reached port. A Chinese was found lying in the bottom of one of the boats in the last stage of exhaustion and had to be lifted out and taken to the ship’s hospital immediately. He had stowed at Tahiti, had been seven days without food or water, and seemed in dire distress. It was considered that if he had lain undiscovered for another two days he would have died. There was food and water in the boat, ironically enough, but it was sealed in tanks which could be opened only with a spanner.”

Photographs were taken of the man on the wharf at San Francisco, and he was put in hospital for further treatment. By the time the ship left he was well again and came on board to be returned to Tahiti. They heard on arrival there that a warrant was out for his arrest on a charge of stabbing a French gendarme, and it was the opinion on board that the Chinese would be sent to Devil’s Island.