A TREACHEROUS BAR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 255, 25 October 1907, Page 4

A TREACHEROUS BAR.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE WHANGAPE FATALITY. Captain J. Harrison, master of the steamer Ohineinuri, who was in Whangape when the launch fatality occurred there on Sunday last, gave a graphic account of the sad occurrence to a "Star" reporter yesterday afternoon. Captain Harrison said that the whole settlement was thrown into a state of grief over the pathetic end of so many young fellows, and it was rendered the more poignant because of the touch of foolhardiness in their venturing over the treacherous bar in a small boat. "I do not exaggerate," he said, "when I refer to the Whangape bar as being treacherous, because it is regarded as the most dangerous channel in New Zealand, tlie suddenness with which heavy seas gather being its worst feature. Familiarity they say breeds contempt, and this may be applied to some of the people, for it is not uncommon when the weather is any way fine to see fishing parties in open boats outside the bar. Only last Saturday I came upon five parties in open boats, and towed them in over the bar, reminding them of the danger they ran. How far that warning was heeded is shown in the fact that several of the fateful launch party were in one or other of those boats.' "No one on shore appears to have witnessed the accident, the settlement being about a mile distant from the bar, but from what I could gather from the survivors they must have passed through a terrible ordeal. There was a bit of a sea on the bar when the launch went out early in the afternoon, and she received a severe dusting, but got over all right. The fishing was poor, and an early start was made for home. Coming up towards the bar it was found that the sea was too high, and the launch turned back, and waited for an hour. By that time the sea seemed to be a little better, but there were some on the launch who were opposed to making an attempt at entry then, but the majority thought otherwise, and the boat came up to the entrance. Shortly afterwards a big sea came up from behind, and over the stern, filling the launch with water. Then a second wave chased the launch, and she was engulfed. The deckhouse was broken to matchwood, and the occupants were thrown overboard, and scattered. Two or three got into the launch again, and pulled off their clothes. Scarcely a minute elapsed before another sea struck the water-logged craft, which was broken up, the main portion of the launch sinking. Mr Allen, manager of the Whangape mill, found that he could not reach the launch, and Wi Hare, seeing Mr Allen's predicament, threw him some ooards, which assisted him in getting ashore. He landed-inside the harbour, and ran to the ferry station, where he gave first news of the occurrence. Search parties immediately set off down the harbour in boats. On their way to the heads thej- picked up Mr Blundell, the engineer, who owed his life in a great measure to a the ends of which he had knocked out in order to bring it up over his arm, thereby se-: curing a better hold. The other survivors had landed safely when the launch got down towards the heads, and they were all token to the ferry station, where they received every attention. "Only one of the bodies of the missing men was found, that of Mr Adamson. His body was washed ashore on Monday morning, and the sight was a most pitiable one. He had a plank held in his arms as in a vice; it was his death grip. He had been in Whangape for only a few weeks, having arrived there from Auckland, where he had been in the employ of the Leyland-O'Brien Timber Company for about 13 years. "The people of Whangape, mostly Maoris, acted nobly in their endeavour to save as many of the party as possible. They stayed up all Sunday night and the following night searching for the bodies, and it was only when the certainty that the bodies had been swept out to sea was borne in on them that they took any rest."