Family takes to liferaft

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33775, 22 February 1975, Page 1

Family takes to liferaft

(From Our Own Reporter) GREYMOUTH, February 21. A fisherman, his wife, and 15-year-old daughter were rescued from a raft after their tuna-fishing boat sank off the West Coast early today.

The 40ft Dunedin trawler Arcadia sank in 300 ft of water 14 miles south-west of Greymouth about 6.30 a.m.

The skipper, Mr D. Macdonald, sent out a Mayday call about 5.17 a.m. after his wife opened the hatch and found between two and three feet of water in the engine room. She had left the wheel to investigate why the radar was not working properly. The distress call was picked up in Auckland and relayed to Greymouth. Marie Macdonald, aged 15, left the Arcadia for the liferaft half an hour before the fishing boat sank. Her parents joined her 20 minutes later. The Greymouth Harbourmaster (Captain W. Galer) put to sea in the fishing boat Mamari with salvage gear soon after 5.30 a.m. and rescued the Macdonalds about 7 a.m. This afternoon, Mrs Macdonald described her feelings on lifting the hatch and finding the engine room flooding: "I nearly died of fright.” Mr Macdonald said that he had no idea why the vessel had taken in so much water. ‘‘She had not hit anything. It might have been a burst

pipe, but I really have no idea.” The Arcadia had been fishing from Greymouth for more than a year. A load of 264 tuna went down with her.