Launch catches fire and sinks

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32801, 29 December 1971, Page 14

Launch catches fire and sinks

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, December 28.

A three-week holiday cruising in the Hauraki Gulf turned into a nightmare tonight for Mr and Mrs H. L. Nathan when their 35ft launch Miss Denny burnt out and sank in Mansion House Bay, Kawau Island.

The boat, along with about 40 others, was anchored in Mansion House Bay. The fire is believed to have started when a kerosene refrigerator exploded.

Within minutes, the boat became an inferno. It sank after 20 minutes.

Nobody was on board the launch at the time, Mr and Mrs Nathan having just left in a dinghy. Mr Nathan swam back to the boat in the hope of dealing with the fire, but he was beaten back by flames. A boat-owner also staying in Mansion House Bay tried to ram the boat and sink it in an endeavour to stop the fire from spreading to other boats close by.

i The boat, which sank in about 30ft of water, carried valuable equipment to the bottom as well as holiday clothes the Nathans had on board, diving gear, and a radio-telephone radio set. The Nathans were on only the fourth day of their threeweek holiday. Although neither was injured, they were treated for shock by a doctor on Kawau Island.

The manager of the Mansion House Hotel (Mr L. A. Walker) said that events happened so quickly that nobody had much time to do anything. “There was a bang, and the next minute the Miss Denny was a mass of flames,” he said. Mr Walker lent the Nathans some clothes, and put them up at the hotel for the night. They will return to Auckland tomorrow morning.