Frogmen Search Muddy Lake

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31261, 6 January 1967, Page 1

Frogmen Search Muddy Lake

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) ’ CONISTON WATER, January 5. Frogmen searched the murky lake here today for the body of Donald Campbell, who was killed yesterday when his jet-propelled boat, the Bluebird, crashed at a speed of more than 300 miles an hour.

The search for his body was aban- ; doned last night when muddy conditions , 120 feet under the surface of the lake I thwarted the efforts of police divers to ■ find the rest of the wreckage of the two-and-a-half-ton, 12-year-old vessel.

Television viewers last night saw Campbell’s efforts to smash his own world waterspeed record of 276.33 miles an hour—set in 1964—end in a shroud of spray within 200 yards of victory. Engineers at the side of

the lake heard Campbell’s last frantic radio message, "She’s going, she’s going,” as the Bluebird took off like an

aircraft, somersaulted, cartwheeled through a huge cloud of spray, and sank. A world water-speed record cannot be awarded posthumously, as Campbell, travelling well above the former record, failed by seconds to complete the course. In Los Angeles, Craig Breedlove, who is preparing his jet speedboat for an attempt on Campbell’s water record next autumn, said he had lost a “terrific competitor.”

Breedlove said: “I was very upset by the news. It’s a terrible thing to happen, and I feel I have lost a terrific competitor.

“I met him tn 1963 in London shortly after he broke the land-speed record, and then

I saw him again the next year when he came to the United States. We were competing for the same record, but we hit it off very well. I liked him very much. He had a terrific sense of humour. “It seems somewhat in vain, and I can't quite figure out why he was trying to break his own record. I was hoping to make an attempt at the record next autumn, aiming for 300 on water. We are going to continue with it.” In Akron, Ohio, Art Arfons, who clocked 576 miles an hour in a land-speed bid at the Utah Salt Flats a year ago, said: “It was a tragic accident. There are not enough of Campbell’s calibre in the world today. It’s tough to lose him. We met in 1962 at the salt flats. ... He was a real good competitor.” Arfons also is preparing for an attempt on Campbell’s water record.

The photographs show the Bluebird somersaulting before sinking, and spectators viewing the wrecked seat of the Bluebird.