The life boat on our listed side was swung out and then the only accident occurred. One of the sailor: sot caught in the rope as the boa' was lowered and after numerous somersaults in the air landed in the sea, Someone threw him an ea: which he grabbed, and tucked under his knees as he floated along in the ea out of sight, Our boat went after him, but it was impossible to see him because the waves were so high. By some miracle of fate he floated stewart the Mildura. The waves being so enormous we could only see the life boat on the crests for we were very low in the water and our ship awash, However, our boat, with our mate in command, landed her survivors safely I did not get into the first boat because n of the search for the n the engine room and stock hold bilges and trouble with the pumps. He seemed worried because it was blowing a gale and the list had put the low side of the ship to windward and she was shipping heavy seas especially over the after deck Later on he came to the cabin again and said he had had to heave to, head to sea and might have to make back to Brisbane if the pump trouble could not be put right. overboard.
This accident put a new fear into our men left on board, until one of the sailors spotted the Mildura re-souing the man overboard. The "cigarette joss" had worked its charm so I passed more cigarettes (while we waited for our boat to return to us) which the men smoked with a relish, About one hour later our life boat returned with.a fresh roma
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.