Wrecked Fishermen Taken For Prowlers

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30497, 20 July 1964, Page 1

Wrecked Fishermen Taken For Prowlers

(New Zealand Press Association) INVERCARGILL, July 19. Three shipwrecked fishermen who staggered ashore on Oreti Beach in the early hours of this morning were mistaken for prowlers by two courting couples in a motor-car. The men approached the car for help. They had drifted in rough seas for 13 hours before abandoning their boat and swimming ashore with the aid of two rubber tyres.

Their wet clothes and bedraggled condition finally convinced the couples that their pleas for help were genuine.

The three men, all of Tautapere, were John Norman Bateman, aged 40, married, with a family, Edward Alwyn Todd, aged 28, married, with a young family, and Timothy Dwyer, aged 55, single. They escaped with only superficial injuries. Mr Bateman’s boat, a 14-foot open cockpit craft, made of hardwood, and powered by an 8 h.p. engine, was seen by Mr A. Austin, of Wakaputa, about 1.30 p.m., when he was out catching his horse. Mr Austin wondered why the small craft was not returning home as the weather was deteriorating. There was a high wind.

Mr Austin delayed going round his sheep to watch. The

boat became more difficult to see in the rising sea. At 2.30 p.m., it disappeared behind a large roller. At 4 p.m. Mr Austin alerted the Invercargill police, who called in the Search and Rescue Organisation.

An amphibian aircraft took off with two constables and two other men as spotters about 5 p.m. The coast from Oreti beach to Wakatupa Point was searched without success. It was thought the men could not last long in their small craft amid the rising waves. The search was called off at 6 p.m. to be resumed at first light today. At 3 a.m. the three men called at the police station. They left home about 9.30 a.m. on Saturday for a day's fishing. About 1 p.m., with a good haul of cod aboard, they decided to make for the shore when the wind and sea rose. About quarter of a mile off-shore the petrol motor broke down. With damp spark plugs and two flat batteries, attempts to revive the engine were useless. An attempt to rig a sail from a canvas cover failed. The wind was too strong. The boat drifted with the wind and current. The men attempted to beach the boat at Colac Bay Point and later at the Back Beach, at Riverton. The wind and current drove them off and they drifted out to sea. Sea Anchor Near Riverton the men flashed lights to attract help. This failed. A sea anchor was made from a four gallon tin. It slowed the drift of the boat until the tide turned and brought it back in-shore at Oreti Beach. The breakers there swamped the boat. The men abandoned it, swimming with the help of two rubber tyres. Mr Dwyer could not swim. The men arrived home a little after 7 a.m. today. They had drifted about 22 miles in 13 hours to land only 200 yards from a main road.

A police patrol on Oreti Beach early today found the boat washed up in almost the same place as where the men landed.