SAFE BUT EXHAUSTED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 161, 10 July 1928, Page 5

SAFE BUT EXHAUSTED.

MISSING FISHERMEN RETURN. OUT AT SEA SINCE FRIDAY. LAUNCH ENGINE BROKE DOWN. CRAFT RUN ASHORE ON ROCKS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) NEW PLYMOUTH, this day. Alfred Allen and Percy James Bartholomew, the two fishermen who left the harbour on Friday in a motor launch and failed to return, turned up last night at Puniho, 21 miles south of New Plymouth. The engine of the launch broke down, and the craft was driven out to sea about 30 miles south of Cape Egmont. After the engine trouble had been remedied, the men steered for the coast, and they ran the launch ashore about 8 p.m. They | reached a farmer's house in an exhausted I state. The launch struck the rocks, and probably was smashed up. The men had not returned to town at noon. Mr. Bartholomew is 56 years of age, and Mr. Allen, his nephew, is 30. Mr. Allen has a wife and three children, and Mr. Bartholomew also is married, and has an adult family. The launch put out to sea about 9 o'clock on Friday morning. As far as is known, it carried very little petrol, and no provisions except a few sandwiches. It was not until Saturday afternoon when bad weather threatened, that the port authorities learned that the launch was missing. The Harbour Board launch went out on Sunday and Monday, but saw no sign of the missing. The weather and the sea were both bad.