SPECIAL TO THE PRESS

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 8187, 1 June 1892, Page 5

SPECIAL TO THE PRESS

FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.

BY. TELEGRAPH.

DEEABFUL BOATING DISASTER.

DROWNING OF A FOOTBALL TEAM,

MELBOURNE May 25. I A terrible boating fatality has h_pp Clled in Port Phillip Bay involving the logs 0 f fifteen lives, and it is rendered the more sad by the fact that not a single survivor is left to tell the story of the dreadful occurrence. Those who have visited Melbourne will know that Port Phillip Bay i 3 0 f extreme size, in fact quite an inland sea something like forty miles from tho Head, to. Port Melbourne and the mouth of the Yarra, and this long harbor is also of great width. On the eastern shores of the b„v amongst the seaside townships are those ol Mornington and Mordialloc, the former being perhaps best known by the name of Schnapper Point. The accident occurred on Saturday evening after nightfall, when the fishing yawl Process, having on board three fishermen and twelve members of the Mornington Football Clnb, capsized and went down with all hands. At the time of the disaster the boat was returning from Mordialloc, where a football match had been played in the afternoon, auc! as the wind was favourable and the sea not particularly high there was uo reason to expect anything bub a speedy and comfortable trip. Under such conditions of wind and weather the Process should have reached the Moruin_Lou jetty , at, between 8 and 9 o'clock, but when midnight came without sign of the missing boat her absence began to cause serious alarm, and search, parties were sent out to examine the beach, but without result. Soon, after daybreak the efforts of. the shore parties were supplemented by the employment of fishermen's boats, aided by the yacht Wanderer, which was lying oif the point, and at about 11 o'clock on Sunday morning the fears of those on shore were realised by the discovery of the missing boat floating with only a small portion of the bow out of water about four miles and a half from Mornington and some [two miles and a half from the shore. 'When the Process had been hauled to the surface the naked body of one of her passengers, a youth named Lawrence, was found tangled in part of the broken rigging,' dug . tho __)_ careful search was made no other bodies 'coold--.be found, and no more have since been discovered. The distance between tho two townships is fifteen miles. Before the Mornington team left on Saturday morning Charles Hooper, one of the oldest members of the team, who was a boatman, strongly urged the sea trip, and as a further inducement offered to lend them his smartest boat, a 28ft'half-decker named the Process, which had gained a reputation for her success in local regattas. The Process was a double ended centre-board boat, rigged as a yawl and when employed in fishing spread two big sails of the usual size, but for this special trip Hooper agreed to replace the „ ordinary canvas by the boat's racing suit, and his arguments had such weight that twelve of the twenty players decided upon venturing by sea. Those who went in the Process on the trip from Mprnington to Mordialloc were the boatman, Charles Hooper, his son Charles and a fisherman named John Coomber, in charge of the boat. The football party consisted of three sons of the Key. Jas. Caldwell, Presbyterian minister at Mornington; Wm. Grover and his nephew John Kenna, Wnu Coles, John T. Coxhead, Alfred Lawrence, •Jas. Firth, Chas, Williams, P. Schultz and Mr Short, Manager of the Commercial Bank, Mornington. They made the run from Mornington in two hours and a tquarter.. So plea_-a_i l t, indeed, waa the trip that only oue of the passengers, the captain of the team, Mr Coxhead, suffered from seasickness. : The match was played, and resulted in, a draw. Towards \ six o'clock in the evening preparations were made for returning to Mornington, but some chance circumstance led to a change in the number of those who went by the Process., Mr; Coxhead, the captain of the team, had, actually walked down the pier, but at thei last moment, fearing, as he says, a return of bis seasickness and giving way also to a presentiment of danger, made up his mind to return by rail. Mr Short; or the Oonimereial Bank, also decided to take" the train, and the two places thus left vacant phboatd the Process were filled by two other members of the teams, Geo. Milne, better known as Jock McFie, and Charles Allchin, a young -man articled to a firm of Melbourne architect., who had run down to Mornington to play for the Club. Thuß, on; board the Process when she left MordialloCj there were in all fifteen souls, of whom three were seafaring men and the other twelve 1 , totally unskilled in the handling of a boat in. a sea Way. V The Process was. watched for at, Mornington, but for once she failed to bear out her reputation for speed. Nine o'clock had long-passed, and the wind still blew fair for the expected boat, but no hail from her came but of the darkness to those on the pier. Mr G. D- Grover, who had a brother Oti bpavdj drove to Mordialloc, aud there learned that the Process had sailed at 6 p.m.,Yand tliat she had certainly not returned. He drove back again to Mornington, hoping that she had arrived in his, absence, only to be met with the sorrowful report, (, No news. '* The night was one of watching in Mornington, of doubt and agonising suspense, and still more agonising hoping against all hope. All night, despite , the bitter cold, there* were little groups on the jetty straining their eyes into the darkness seaward. AU night, too, other watchers wandered up" and down the beach spending their strength and their hope in vain searches! Meantime the wind changed suddenly to the S. W., and a choppy sea' J got- up that added, if anything could add, intensity to the'fears of those oii shore. At three o'clock on the Sunday morning all hope was given up. It was recognised that nothing more could be done by private effort, and that the assistance of the authorities must, be called in. The ttev. Jas. Caldwell, father of the three lads on board the missing boat, went to the" local police Station and reported the loss of the boat to the ' constable in charge. A search was organised along the beach, and a number of fiahing boats put off from the point to search the bay. The yacht Wanderer, from Melbourne, with its owner, Mr Fergie, and a party on board, was lying off the point and jointed in the search. Some hours were occupied in these arrangements, and by this time the news of the disaster had spread all '' through the district; the jetty was crowded, and every elevated point of the coastline I had its little group of anxious watchers. It was nearly 11 o'clock on Sunday before; any discovery was, made. Then the, fishing - boat Progress, owned like the Process- by Charles Hooper, and which was being sailedby his brother, suddenly altered her course and bore down to a dark object barely visible above the Water. This proved to be, thehxtH'of the missing boat. Th. XVtmderce hauled her windaud.prbc-.Hc_l'to the spot., TheiProc__3 was painted white with a gold streak above her water line, but now the gay paint on the bona was all torn and scratched as though a dozen pairs of clinging hands bad fought and clutched at the smooth; painting in tha desperate hope of getting hand-Hold where none was to be found. The-aflora looking down from the'deckof the Wanderer saw these stens and read in them the whole history of the calamity. When tho boat could be righted it was seen that the mainmast had snapped short off, and the wire stay which supported it and acted as a halyard for the sail bad carried a Way, the mizzen mast had also snapped off close to the deck, and this* it was judged was not due to the accident which had caused the wreck, but to a more dreadful cause, - it- had been broken as the paint on the bow, had been scratched, by the weight of the men struggling to keep their heads above water. when the whole length of the boat was exposed then the crew of the Wanderer saw the body of a boy of slight build and quite naked, which lay easily across the boat with the arms -lightly bent as though at the moment of death. The poor lad had been trying to . crawl over the gunwale. A rope tangled round ids legso tightly .that it had cat,

deeply into the thjgh explained why, of the nftoen people abroad, this one alatto had »ot got clear of the boat. As tho Process sank he had got tangled in tho broken tl smg, and he had gone done with her without even a chance for his life. r v*f yes wero wido °P«n» the checks flushed, the ©spressioti waa Peaceful, i n the fij&cnnen iim the t»at, seeing the lifelike appearance of the cwpso, were seized with a euperatitioua areart, and could not be induced to touch it. ?* the crew of tho Wanderer to distuigago the body from the encircling thlt ? d \ he firemen thea placed it in X?£i ' whosi ° t*»o deoowed w*. tamef™y "cognued as Alfred Uwnnce. As SS , f Pl v c - Q r wmd tho Mi sunken t ght au<i could not, Ik, loosed at the S aW and all the pawmei, bSS v-ent vhovc «v nothing left to coimuaulte the tiitcen men, Lllii* boat must have mstauUy.- She must havo sunk slowly, bocausJ it ia evulent that eomo of" those on board had tune to strip off all thoir clothes before they were forced to trust themselves to the mok ,ttt T fuU oi gara>e»te, for the TnriiJ) fi, eanag si 5 ,13 oi havin S beta hurriedly thrown off~a pair oi trousem ball jacket, sea boots, all these washed l»Im^off 0 thwirts jU3U M they had been

VVhile the httle licet, of search vesseU tacked backxvards and forwards in the bay on Sunday morning, tho jetty rt t Mornington was crowded with roktives and frienda of the musing men, all of them anxiously watching the movements of the Wanderer, whose wmto sails made her a conspicuous object. Some had betakon thomsolvea to tuo church, out so far as the Presbyterians at least were concerned there had been a sudden end of tho service. The officiating minister, Mr Caldwell, broke down in tho middle of lvi prayers, and was compelled to beg the indulgence of tho congregation, Ihere were others in tho church who had sous in the fishing boat, and they went again to swell the crowd that still looked out to seaward Presently tho yacht was seen to haul her wind, aud'one of the fishing boats passed under tho stern. Some, thing had evidently boen found, and whilo tho sunken boat was being righted the keenest watch from the shore failed to make out what had happened. For an hour their patience wa3 racked, then the Wanderer once more shot back towards the jetty, with the fishing boat following in her wake, and tears and sobs broke out from those on the shore when it was seen that the flag on the yacht was half-mast high. It was in this way that the news of the disaster was broken. As the Wanderer neared the jetty those on shore called out piteously to know whether all wero dead ; whether any bodies had bean recovered; whether a son, or a husband, or a father had been found. It so happened that the father of the dead lad was uot on the pier vhen tho boat camo to land, bub one of the crew of the -yachts met him a few miilutc3 later iv the main street. " Have they found any bodies?" he asked. The yachtsman drew him aside, and told him that his Bon'a body had been found. The bereaved father turned his head away. "Tell them to eend him home, tell them to send him home " he eaid ia a broken voice, and strode away away towards his own home where tho I bearers soon after laid their eorrowful I burden. As the Process was towed in to the jetty and baled out the crowd rushed to examinethc clothing found in her, and sobs I and tears broke out anew as some familiar garment was recognised. Later in the afternoon one of the search party on a lonely part of the beach came upon the Rev. Mr Caldwell walking distractedly by the edge of the waves with his ■ gaael turned seawards; the man respected hl& grief and epoke no word to him. But, indeed, incidents such as these were hardly remarkable in a grief so general that in a whole township theie was scarcely a house that did not mourn, if not for a relation at least for a friend. The following are some particulars of those drowned :— Charles Hooper, the r owner of the ill fated Process, was about forty-eeven years of age, and had been established as a fisherman at Mornington for many years. Hβ is described as a very steady man, and he bore tho [reputation of thoroughly knowing'itaiw to 1 handle a boat. In spite of his age ho w<lß an enthusiastic footballer. He leaves & widow and five children.

; Charles Hooper, son of the last-named, '< was a lad of fourteen, had fdr some time past assisted his father, and waa noted for his skill iv handling sailing boats. John Coomber, who assisted in the management of the Process, was a late resident of Geelong, where his widow and family,still remain. Ho had only beea in Mornington for about a month, but so fear aa is known he wae a very ste&dy man. Hβ took a keen interest in football, and played in the match on Satnrd&y. Jamee, William and Hugh Caldwell, eon* of the Rev. James Caldwell, Presbyterian minister at Mornington, were fine athletic i lada, and having born in Morningtoa I were well known and popular throughout the district ;' : :of a family of five hoya the eldest: and the youngest alone remain alive, Charles Allchin, an architectural etuderit, was a young man of gre&J' promise and unusual intelligence. » Hβ wasaconetant friend of tho three CaldweHs, and it was a sad circumstance for him that he induced one of the other players to give lip hit seat in the boat in order that he might aecoisl* pany bis friends on their return tdp. < William Coleii, employed aa a hlacK* smith at Mornington, was the maim oupwdr* of his father and mother, who ace both'advanced Jn years. He was considered ote« «m the beat footballers in tho team, and wae widely popular on account of hie natural |»fand of good humour. William Grover worked as a builder with his brother in Mornington, he wai a married n*an with one child.

WUliaai Crrover, nephew , of the last named, 1 woe a clerk in the Morningfcoa branch of the Commercial Bank, and had held that position for abont twelve tnoafchs. Alfred Lawrence, whose body co far baa been the only one recovered, was of build but very wiry; he assisted hiflfather ;in his business as a storekeeper and was a J great help to the family. John JCenna, telegraph operator at Mornington, was Secretary to the Mornington Football Club; he only l consented te> take part in the iriatch at the last moment. Jas. Firth, a wheelwright, waa employed by Mr Jenkine, of Main street, Mornington ; he was perhapa the heaviest and strongest man in the team. Hie jpareuts are farmers, and well-known residents of Sommerville, a little distance ou/of Morn* ID t)has. Williams was nearly 6ft f in height, and at least 12at in weight. In the match at Mordiftttoc he made his firet appearaace as a playing member of the Ciab. George C.Milae was a well-known local identity and passed raider the eoubrifiuet of *' Jock Bf cFie." He was a married man with three children, iti poor circumstances.