No more survivors

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 1

No more survivors

(N.Z. Press Association) WHANGAREI, September 5. Navy divers left the scene of the Capitaine Bougainville disaster this afternoon with the death toll tstill presumed to be 16. Five bodies have been recovered. Whangarei police operations reported that police divers were standing by if required. A police spokesman said that at least 10 police would be covering the beaches in the area of Whananaki South during the night. Hopes of finding more survivors from the missing nine adults and two children are now almost nil. After fine conditions and a calm sea during the day, the iweather in Northland began

To deteriorate during the early evening. i The freighter is now i berthed at her new mooring i at Port Whangarei after being ' towed the 12 miles from 1 Marsden Point. The decision to shift the 1 fire-gutted ship was made this afternoon in order to ' make the vessel more readily accessible for the inquiry, I which began at Auckland last i night. t Crew members and passengers were among the 200 ’ people at a service of com- i memoration at the Flying 1 Angel Mission, Auckland, to- 1 day, for those lost from the ship. In his address, the Bishop i of Auckland (the Rt Rev. E. I A. Gowing) said that forces ; and factors created bv God ' were sometimes well nigh un- , controllable, as, to a certain ( extent, they were when the Capitaine Bougainville had to be abandoned.

There may be no need for a formal inquiry into the tragedy, according to the Ministry of Transport Auckland regional marine officer (Mr J. F. Burnand), who said today that a final decision would be made after the master of the ship had been interviewed. Mr Burnand said that he had interviewed all the crew members' he needed to see except the master, Captain J. R. Thomas, who is still at Whangarei standing by to identify the bodies of any more crew members who may be found. So far there had been no indication whether the French maritime authorities wanted to conduct their own inquiry, and Mr Burnand said that it was probably unlikely that the French would make a decision until his own preliminary inquiry was completed.