WRECKAGE FOUND ON BEACH

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21356, 26 December 1934, Page 8

WRECKAGE FOUND ON BEACH

SHIP'S KEEL FOUND NEAR

KARAMEA

LOSS OF KOTITI RECALLED

(srECIAI- 10 THE PRISS.)

GREYMOUTH, December 25

Part of a ship's keel, about 30 feet long, has been washed ashore north of Kokihi Bluff, near Karamea, and it is believed that it is part of the motor-vessel Kotiti, which left Westport on Saturday, October 10, 1931, for Foxton, and was not seen again. Various pieces of wreckage, including oil drums which had been part of the vessel's deck cargo, were found a few days after the Kotiti was reported missing, and a body, believed to be that of Hamilton Matthews, a telegraphist, of Picton, who was a passenger on the vessel, was washed ashore near Farewell Spit. An investigation was held, and it was later stated that it was believed that the Kotiti had sunk near Westhaven Inlet, just south-west of Cape Farewell, either through a storm or through springing a serious leak.

The vessel carried a crew of four. Captain Christian Johansen was in command, and the engineer and principal owner was Mr H. Soares. The piece of keel now washed ashore near Karamea can quite plainly be seen at low tide. It is not complete, part of it being broken off, and the opinion is definite on the West Coast that it is a part of the Kotiti.