Anglican Shipwreck

With the solemn blessings of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London bestowed upon it, and a happy crowd to cheer its going, a trim white ship sped down the Thames and out to sea last July. It was the Southern Cross , VI, a 220-ton, 150-ft. motorship. latest and prettiest of a succession of Church of England vessels carrying the gospel to faraway isles.

Last week the Southern Cross VI was hobbling along near Aneityum in the New Hebrides (midway between Australia and the Fijis). A sudden squall blew up. dashed the ship on a coral reef. She began to sink. Captain A. M. Stanton had to get his men ashore. First the crew tried to lower a boat. Monster waves lashed it, smashed it to bits. When a second attempt failed, an officer took a line in his teeth, dived into the swirling sea. He swam for half an hour, at last reached the beach 150 yd. away, crawled up cut and bleeding to make the line fast. It took three hours to get all hands ashore. Some of the crew's 15 Solomon Islanders could not swim, had to be helped along the line, hand over hand. Once the rope broke, plunged a man into the water. Captain Stanton dived after him grappled, quieted the fellow with a blow, dragged him ashore. At last all were reported saved. It had been thought that Missionary R. D. E. Voil was lost, but Anglicans breathed easier to learn he had disembarked before the pretty, white Southern Cross VI went down,'battered and smashed, on Aneityum's coral reef.

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