Search fails to find crew of cray boat

Press, 28 August 1978, Page 1

Search fails to find crew of cray boat

PA Invercargill The tight-knit Stewart Island community is very upset after a search on Saturday failed to find any trace of the three islanders who disappeared off the coast of the Breaksea Islands late last week.

Messrs Stanley Eade and David Fraser, owners of the 12.2 m Mapua, were well known in the community. Their crewman, Mr Hugh McManus, had recently joined the team. All three were married. The wreckage of the Mapua, a crayfishing boat, was found on Friday on a rocky beach on Kaihukai Island, one of the Breaksea group. 24km south of Hal f moon Bay.

The last radio contact with the men, who were al! in their thirties, was at 11 a m. on Wednesday. The wreck was seen on Friday in a preliminary aerial sweep of the area, and men were landed from

a helicopter to search the beaches. The search resumed on Saturday, and a party of 10 men, mostly Stewart Islanders, looked for the men until 2 p.m., when the search was officially called off.

Equipment from the Mapua’s liferaft, which was not found with the wreckage, was found during the morning. The Mapua was launched on the island on July 29. There was general pride in the community because she was the first boat launched there for nearly 30 years. Messrs Eade and Fraser had spent about 1500 hours fitting her out for the crayfishing season. Apart from plywood, all wood used in the wheel house and below was Stewart Island-milled macrocarna. which the men felled and milled themselves.