Man saved after 11 hours in sea

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34041, 3 January 1976, Page 16

Man saved after 11 hours in sea

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Jan. 2. “It thought I was a goner because I’m a poor swimmer, but I stayed cool and didn’t panic. That’s what saved me.”

Numb from the cold and just conscious, the 43-year-old Mr James Verryt, of Auckland, was rescued from the sea off Opotiki today after floating on his back for 11 hours. He had no life jacket. His two dead companions I were Mr Robert James Booth, aged 54, a builder of Opotiki, and, Mr Philip Myles Doyle, aged 20, also of Opotiki. ROPED TO SEAT Their bodies were found by searchers five miles off shore. One body was found roped to a wooden seat from the boat. Tucked up with blankets and hot water bottles in Opotiki Hospital, Mr Verryt told of his ordeal.

“We went out at about 6.30 p.m. yesterday to check a net we had set earlier,” he

said. “We were pulling the net in across the stern of the boat—a Sea Nymph, 14ft 6in long. The net got stuck in the propeller of the outboard motor and water started coming into the boat. “We hung on to the bow for about 20 minutes but air was escaping from the hull and she was sinking. The owner swam over to a big plastic buoy—about Bft long —attached to the net. DIVED FOR JACKETS

“She swamped and went down stern first very quickly. We had everything, flares and lifejackets, but the jackets got caught in the bow as she went down.

“Bob (the owner) tried to dive for the jackets but couldn’t reach them. I decided to stay with the boat. The only chance I had was to stay lying in the water when the'boat went down. “I heard the others talking to each other at about 2 a.m. and yelled to them but I didn’t hear from them after that.”

Boats and aircraft began searching at first light. After combing the sea for an hour, a Whakatane pi’ot, Mr Graham Bell, saw Mr Verryt in the water. “LOST MY COOL” Mr Bell used his radio to call up a boat which was searching about a mile and a half from where Mr Verryt was drifting. “He flew over me and I thought for a moment t'hat he had missed me,” said Mr Verryt. “That’s when I lost my cool and started thrashing

about. I went down twice and I was just about gone when this boat nosed up to me. It was the most wonderful sight. “Another couple of minutes and it would have been too late.”

Mr Verryt was wearing a pair of shorts and a jersey during his 11 hours in the water. He is the owner of the Remuera Village Gallery Bookshop and was on holiday with his wife and five children. 10 DROWNINGS This latest tragedy brings the number killed in smallboat accidents since Christmas to 10. Two men are still missing, presumed drowned, in the Bay of Islands, and six young people died off Whitianga on Tuesday. Three of these bodies are still missing.