I gave the source for the second reference. Here it is again.
The article mentions statements from the Master of the Ellsworth not Trongate.
True. My apologies if I inadvertently got the two ships mixed up.
Due to the nature of the article you cannot be certain if the statements were from this individual or the reporter using the letters sent to the board of trade.
The date on the article is 16 December 1929, about two weeks after the incident. The first paragraph reads: "In dispatches by wireless, the master of the Norwegian motor-tanker Lincoln Ellsworth described the wreck of the British steamer Norwich City on the lonely, uninhabited Gardner Islanad in mid-Pacific, the subsequent burning of the vessel, and the drowning of 11 men when a lifeboat overturned in the surf. The wireless messages describe the exciting rescue operations."
The remainder of the article begins, "One message states." Everything that follows is enclosed in quotation marks, which, in ordinary English, means that it is a quotation.
It even say "one statement mentions".
That phrase is not in
the article.
More than likely they found the statement of Daniel Hamer.
The Board of Inquiry was held in Apia on 12 December 1929.
This article appeared in Melbourne on 16 December 1929.
London did not receive the materials from the Board of Inquiry until 25 January 1930. Cf. stamp on
this copy of the letter of transmission. It is possible that the press in Melbourne got hold of the Board report before London, I suppose. Strange things do happen. And we all know that reporters are stupid liars, who would rather make things up than report the facts. So you may be right.
There are only two descriptions of the location in all of the testimony that I can find, the 1.5NM by Daniel Hammer and the South-East corner of the island given by John Harry Swindell of the Trongate. The only other description was the "lee-side" of the island that is a point of contention.
1. I consider Hamer a reliable source.
2. I have drawn two pictures of "the corner of the island southeast of the Trongate" in
a recent post, and indicated that I have changed my mind about how to understand that term. I no longer believe that the Trongate rounded America traveling counter-clockwise. I believe she rounded the point of
Noriti, and then saw the skiff crossing the lagoon.
3. I have drawn a picture of the
lee-side of the island previously in this thread, which shows that Tekibeia, Aukaraime South, Ameriki, and the southern part of Aukaraime North are on the "lee side" of the island when the wind is from the northwest.
Source for "4 natives"? Six are credited with accomplishing the rescue.
13. At 3 p.m. the whale boat succeeded in crossing the reef and reached the TRONGATE'S life boat and the LINCOLN ELLSWORTH'S motor boat. The motor boat towed the other two boats to the TRONGATE. The whale boat had brought 3 survivors from the island.
14. The native crew, which had been working uncessantly [sic] since early morning, rested for a little while on the TRONGATE; then 4 of them returned to the island to be ready to make a further attempt to bring off the survivors in the morning.
OK. In other words, there were 9 souls on board
for the first rescue on Tuesday, which is what I thought we were talking about. All day long on Tuesday, there are 6 natives in the boat, not 4. You can't leave them out of your calculations for TUESDAY, which is the day that leads to the establishment of the third and last survival camp.
That demonstrates that 7 people were able to fit in to the boat over the rough surf. You could easily fit probably 10 people in the boat on calm water.
So you've got 6 natives plus ... 4 passengers. With 24 folks to transport, that's six trips to the Seven Site. It takes 5.5 round trips at 3 NM each to ferry the 24 people there. That is 16.5 NM of rowing in the heat of the day. Even if you spot them the ability to row at 3 knots, that's 5.5 hours before you even make your first of many attempts to get out to the ships.
I don't find that the least bit likely.
Again if your description were true, he might have said something like "we round a corner to the South-East". By using the word "the" this is very specific and describes only one singular possible corner of the island.
That assumption and interpretation is what I deny is
necessary. It is a possible interpretation, but not the only one.
What he did say was "We rounded the South-East corner of the island". This is not ambiguous and really not open to interpretation. You are then forced to reject this statement in its entirety so that you can keep the 1.5NM estimate from Hammer.
No, I am not "forced to reject this statement in its entirety." I see how natural it is from the Trongate's point of view to call the first point that they rounded "the southeast corner of the island." Just as with the word "south," the witness is not speaking from the point of view of people who have the modern maps and satellite photos in mind. The corner seen to the southeast of the boat is
the southeast corner of
the island from
that point of view. Around that first corner is the "lee side" of the island. It is because it is a corner that it provides shelter from the wind.
Let us not use my interpretation, let us use the Webster's dictionary:
1: in a position reaching from one side to the other : crosswise
2: to or on the opposite side
That definition fits any number of points "across" the lagoon. There isn't just one opposite "side" of an irregularly shaped pool of water; there are many places that are "opposite" to the shoreline of Noriti.

If your theory was correct they would have stated the they "moved over", "moved along" the lagoon. There are multiple statements from survivors and rescuers that the boat moved across the lagoon and this is not a coincidence in my opinion.
It is your imagination that is supplying the "would have." I do not feel compelled in any way to buy into your mental picture of what the crew "would have stated." If there is one and only one meaning for the word "across," it would land the crew in Ameriki, not Aukaraime North, where the Seven Site is located. If you can call the diagonal transit of the internal body of water from Noriti to the Seven Site "across," you may call many other such transits of that single body of water "across" as well.