A NARROW ESCAPE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 282, 27 November 1891, Page 3

A NARROW ESCAPE.

LOSS OF A FISHING YACHT.

Last evening the owner and the two men comprising the crew of the small locallyowned fishing yacht Yon Molbko arrived in town from Wairoa South in thes.g. Waitoa, and reported to the water-police that their boat had capsized in the Hauraki Gulf yesterday afternoon, and that they narrowly escaped drowning. The crew were :—Gtistav Eekenberg (master and owner), and two seamen named Winter and Thoa. Downes. The yacht, which is quite a now craft, having been launched at the Thames a couole of weeks ago, was at the time of her capsize bound up to Auckland from the lower part of the Hauraki Gulf. About cwo o'clock in the afternoon she was off the Sandspit, Waiheke, when a sharp puff of wind struck her and sent her over. Being deep-laden with 30 baps of oysters, she did not right herself, bub went down like a stone, in 18 to 20 feet of water, and so quickly did she sro down that the crew had not time even to cast off the dingy. Fortunately, all the men were good swimmers, or they would have had a poor chance of being saved. Winter had to dive down and cut the dingy adrift from the yacht, and on getting ib to the surface the men got into it, and drifted about for some p time. They were soon picked up by Mr Gallagher, of Wairoa Boubh, in his yachb, and were then transferred to the s.s. Waitoa for Auckland. The sunken yacht lies in a position from which ib is anticipated it will be easy to raiae her. The Yon Moltke was a new kauri-built centreboard yachbjusb finished this month by Messrs May and Smith, boabbuildera of the Thames, to the order of Mr Eckenberg for fishing and oystering purposes. Her dimensions are: Length of keel, 26ft; 1.0.1., 80ft; boam, 9ft; draught, 3ft Gin. She possessed excellent sailing qualities. It is considered that her capsize was due to the fact of her being overladen.