News (Adelaide, SA : 1923 - 1954), Saturday 16 April 1932, page 1


WOULD JOIN SEARCH Ordeal of Ketch Master's Wife STILL HOPES S~ EARI E D by' sleepless Snights without word to relieve her anxiety, Mrs. H. Burgess, wife of the master of the Vivid, would like to: go ,to P-ort Lireoln to search for her husband. -"While -no wreckage- is. found. I still hope he: may be alive.", .she said this afternoon. "He was. a good swimmer, and although the Wivid may have - been wrecked, I think, he may be living on one of ..the small' islands. If that were so I.don't think he would be seen. from the air. . "We have a motor car, but it is not registered. I should:-veryT much -like to go and look for my husband. "My husband has been away for months at a time before," she said, "but I have

never had suich :a nerve-racking week' as this has' been. "Before' he left he said -he had had enough of the coast round Port Lincoln, .and did not like the idea- of'going back. "Wie: have six children, aged from' six to. 16, but they cannot realise .that their father lhae gone. Alf, the little boy of six, told me yesterday, 'If I had an heroplane I would go to look .for dad.' "'I:'am pleased they are ,not older, or it wohld'be worse for me." FLOTSAM FOUND SA piece of-flotsam which was thought to have come.from the Vj'id has been picked up by the schooner Nelcebee 'about a mile and a quarter from. Cape Hardy, about-20 miles north of Tuumby Bay. So far it has not been identified. -The owood had .on it.severalcro~s?es as though it had been, used for a chopping blbck.' and for washing dishes. Several kIetches keep similar pieces of wood. on deck near the galley. The wood bad been used as a hatchcover. It also had-half a Roman figure: V -carved on it. But Mr.: P.-R. Fricker, of Fricker: and Co., Ltd., the agents for the -Vivid, said today that it would be impossible to identify this piece of wood as being a part of the ketch. The name of the ketch' would not be carved on the hatchcover. .Capt. Capt. E. S..Hipkins, of the Nelcebee, took the wood to the Port Lincoln harbormaster (Capt. H. R. G.-' Malcolm). "'I have examined the timber, and it may have come from 'a'-ketch," he said. "But I believe that a~y -evidence of the Vivid is more likely to be fdund near the Sir Joseph Banks group of islands. At the next meeting of the Harbors Board to'be held shortly a date will be fixed -for an enquiry into the fate of the Vivid, the chairman (Mr. E. A. Farqubar) .said today. -As the aerial search yesterday failed to trace the Vivid no' other investigation is likely to be organised. The Vivid, now a week overdue at Port Lincoln,.left Tumby Iay last Saturday. The crew comprised. Messrs. Hilton Burgess, Reginald Evans, and E.: S. Webb, all of Birkenhead.