No more signs of fishermen

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33056, 25 October 1972, Page 16

No more signs of fishermen

(From Our Own Reporter)

GREYMOUTH, October 24.

The search was continued today for two of a fishing party of three who disappeared at Twelve Mile on the coast road between Greymouth and Westport on Saturday.

Searchers scoured the coastline for traces of Noel Thomas Wright, aged 26, of Runanga, and his brother-in-law, Douglas Timothy McSherry, aged 12, of Nelson.

The body of the father of the boy, Douglas Roland McSherry, was found on the Barrytown beach on Monday evening. Today’s search was directed more to the area between Seventeen Mile and the Fox River, and the Westport police would be called in to check beaches at

Charleston and further north, the field controller (Sergeant R. J. Laredo) said today. A third aerial search of the area was made this morning with about 50 ground searchers. Another search was mounted from the Greymouth central police station late this afternoon. Extensive searches between Kahurangi Point and Farewell Spit have failed to produce any further signs of the two crayfishermen who failed to return from a fishing trip last Wednesday, according to the Nelson reporter of “The Press.” The two men, Messrs J. R. Ryan, aged 49, and G. E. Thomas, aged 23, both of Nelson, are now believed to have drowned while negotiating heavy surf in the isolated and rugged coastline round Kahurangi Point.

Their boat, an 18ft jet craft, was smashed in the water and only one section of it has been recovered.