THIRD SEA MYSTERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 80, 5 April 1943, Page 2

THIRD SEA MYSTERY

RAFT WASHED UP ON BEACH

(0.C.) SYDNEY, April 2. Evidence of a third sea mystery was washed up on another Gosford beach—Terrigai—on Wednesday in the form of a 10ft square raft, with oars, sculls and two tanks of fresh water lashed to it.

The raft was covered with barnacles, indicating long immersion in the sea. It was first sighted by Alfred Craig and S. Coxhead, fishermen, in a heavy swell about two miles off the beach.

The raft was washed to the beach after a fishing > launch, through breaking down, had failed to reach it. A 50ft plank and other wreckage were also found on the beach. On March 19, at Avoca Beach, farewell messages from three men adrift in a launch were washed up in a screwtop jam jar. The writers of the messages—Harold Francis Douglas, George Stephenson Broadley and John Bell—left La Perouse in a 28ft launch'on August 30 last. They were never seen again On March 21 police dug the remains of a launch from under 4ft of sana on Avoca Beach. Residents told police that the launch was driven in by a storm on March 5, and was later burned by its crew of three men.