Man Leaps From Burning Launch

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30108, 17 April 1963, Page 17

Man Leaps From Burning Launch

(New Zealand Press Association)

DUNEDIN, April 16. With clothes ablaze a young Sawyers Bay man dived overboard from his 28ft launch seconds before it burst into flames off Goat Island in the Otago Harbour this afternoon. He was not injured but the vessel was

gutted. He is William Stevens, aged 24, of Stevenson avenue, Sawyers Bay. The only person on board the vessel, he had been anchored about 250 yards from Goat Island doing some fishing. He said the fire began when he was sitting on the motor trying to start it. The carburettor blew back and petrol caught alight “I was lucky to get out of it,” he said. “My shirt and jersey were alight so I made a dive for the door and straight over the side. “There was 14 gallons of petrol in the tank. I was fri ,'htened it might explode but it just kept on burning. “I don't know about the motor but the boat itself is a write-off." Mr Stevens said he swam to Goat Island and was later taken back to the mainland in an outboard dinghy. “I wasn’t hurt but I was fairly stunned about the whole thing when I reached the island.” He said the fishing vessel Venture with two Port Chalmers policemen aboard had gone out to try to put the fire out but could not get close enough to the burning vessel. The hulk had been towed to the island and beached. The launch was about 70 years old and had been con-

verted from a yacht, Mr Stevens said. He had rebuilt the upper part. “There was a full insurance cover on it but this would not cover the cost of building the same sized boat today.’’