BODY ON RAFT

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31522, 9 November 1967, Page 26

BODY ON RAFT

N.Z. Doctor In Collision (N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) LONDON, Nov. 8. Police are investigating the death of a brilliant New Zealand doctor whose body was found on a life raft 12 miles off the Kentish coast. The doctor was Frederick Boyea Korkls, a Harley Street specialist and dean of the London Metropolitan Ear, Nose and Throat Hospital. Mr Korkls and a friend. Alan Jones, aged 37, left Dover on Sunday In a 50ft motor cruiser for Rochester, a Kent police spokesman said today. MAYDAY CALL On Sunday night the boat was reported to have been in collision with the 40,000-ton tanker Eridge and a Mayday call was sent out, the spokesman said. The Margate lifeboat put out but was recalled after the tanker radioed that the cruiser was not badly damaged. The cabin cruiser headed for the Thames but later sank, the spokesman said.

Yesterday an R.A.F. helicopter sighted the rubber life raft 12 miles off Margate. ONE SURVIVOR

The crew picked up Jones, who was suffering from exposure, and the body of Mr Korkis. He said a search was continuing for the sunken motor cruiser, whose last position was believed to be marked by a buoy Meanwhile, Interpol has been asked to interview the master of the Eridge when she arrives in Rotterdam, her next port of call. TRAINED IN N.Z.

Mr Korkis qualified as a doctor at Otago University in 1937. He was assistant ear, nose and throat specialist at Auckland General Hospital and later came to Britain to practice. He served as a major in the New Zealand Army Medical Corps during the Second World War. Later he returned to Britain.