aground on the notorious Middleton Reef,

Middleditch, that is a great account of the Runic’s stranding and brings to mind a story that I have posted before about another stranding There was a mad mariner, a Welshman named Irfon Nicholas who sailed from Europe to Auckland via various ports in a 30 odd foot Ferro-cement yacht that had the charming name of “Sospan Fach”, Welsh for little saucepan and named after a little ditty that the town of Llanelli is famous for. It is supposed to be the most famous nonsense song sung at Welsh rugby union matches. Apparently Irfron’s crew left him in Auckland and when it became time to move on to Sydney he advertised in the local paper for new recruits and took on an Australian male and two NZ women all in search of adventure. I remember the bloke, a reticent sort of character, and his boat, a doubtful example of a sound craft, and the sort of boat that we used to call a floating septic tank. The skipper left Auckland in 1974 without notifying the local Marine Authorities and getting a certificate of sea worthiness, headed to North Cape before setting a westerly course toward Australia and by this time he had already started to quarrel with his crew. Some time after the drama that follows I remember reading that the crew expressed doubts about his navigational skills and were told that to get to Australia you just sailed to the top of NZ, turned left and sailed to the best weather advantage until you sighted Aussie then coast down to Sydney!! Needless to say that plan did not work and they finished up going aground on the notorious Middleton Reef, graveyard to many ships, one of the biggest being the “Runic” that went aground during a cyclone in 1961. Luckily for “Sospan Fach” crew they were able to find shelter and food on a nearby Japanese trawler wreck “Fuku Maru” that ran aground in 1963 in high seas. This wreck has been replenished with supplies and used as a food cache for ship wrecked sailors ever since. They were eventually able to signal a passing ship and get rescued..