LAUNCH WRECK.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 32, 8 February 1939, Page 9

LAUNCH WRECK.

CRASHED ON ROCKS. ONE SAVED, ONE DROWNED. HEROIC RESCUE ATTEMPTS. SYDXEY, February 3. One man was drowned and another lay all night naked on the rocks after their 16-foot launch had been wrecked at the foot of Point Perpendicular. The drowned man was Hugh Doddington Gooding, 53, of Saywell Street, Chatewood. companion, Rupert Mashford, 55, of Broughton Road, Artarmon, made three heroic attempt* to save Gooding.

Injured and suffering from exposure, Mashford saw four search parties pass by, before he wae seen and rescued next afternoon. Both men were on holiday with their wives at Jervia Bay, and met there for the first time. They had left the Xaval College Wharf at" 2.30 p.m. on the fishing trip. Forbidding Headland. Mashford said afterwards that the engine had broken down when the launch was below Point Perpendicular —one of the highest and most forbidding headlands on the coast. "Before we could do anything," he said, "the surge of the swell dragged us close to the rocks. The boat was lifted by a huge wave, turned completely over, and crashed on to the rocks. It was smashed to pieces. That was about 4.50 p.m. I struggled clear, but Gooding was stunned by the launch' hitting him. "He was carried out by the backwash. I tried to grab him, but missed." They were among reefs, about 30 yards olit from the narrow shelf of I rock at the foot of the Point.

"I took off my clothes in the water, and made three more tries to save Gooding," said Mashford, who ie a strong swimmer. "Each time the backwash dragged me back, and I could not reach him. I wae almost exhausted, but I managed to reach the rocks. .

"I saw Gooding floating out to sea. His head was ■ under water, and the air inside his shirt was keeping him up. Then he went round a headland, and I didn't see him asain.

Telling the story of his ordeal Maehford said:—

"I lay there naked all night on a rock above water. I saw four launches pass next day; I waved and shouted, but they did not eee me."

When, at midnight on Wednesday, Mashford and Gooding had not returned, searchers went out in launches and on foot along the shores of the bay. They were assisted by a 'plane. A" northeasterly swell coming into the bay wae described by fishermen as the heaviest for 20 years.

Fatal Bombora.

At the foot of Point Perpendicular there are strong currents and a bombora, which has been responsible for the deaths of many boat fishermen.

A fishing party in a launch owned by Mr. Steve Rawlinson saw Mashford about noon, and took him off. He was wearing only a pair of socks. He had bad abrasions where he had been flung against the rocks, and was violently ill and ouly partly conscious.

Transferred to a launch owned by Goldsmith Bros., he was taken to Huskisson, and thence by car to Jervia Bay. Mrs. Mashford and Mrs. Gooding had never met until after it was discovered that their husbands were overdue. They waited together while the search was made. When Mrs. Gooding learned of her husband's death, she collapsed. Ironically, it was Mrs. Gooding who, during the ordeal of waiting, had insisted that her husband wae safe, and Mrs. Mashford who was most despondent. Mrs. Mashford, with the severe reaction from her hours of suspense, became ill and was put to bed. Maehford, a returned soldier, is a technical assistant employed with the Liverpool Electric Cable Company, Clarence Street. "He is a keen fisherman, and for each holiday in the last four years, has gone to Jervi3 Bay," said the manager of the company (Mr. Maughan). Gooding was head gardener of the Willoughby Council. He came to Australia in the eervice of the British Navy 27 years ago, and, during the war, served with the 30th Battalion. He had no children.