ISABELLA DE FRAINE TRAGEDY

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 245, 17 July 1928, Page 3

ISABELLA DE FRAINE TRAGEDY

RELIEF FOR. DEPENDANTS

OF CREW PREVIOUS -VICTIMS -OF HOKIANGABAR ■Dominion -Special Service.' _ t ' Auckland,. July 16. 1 Thq. .provision .of , for. the dependants* of tlieicrcw of ..the Isabella de Frainc will ■ conic witilin' the scope of the ' Wprkers’.' Compensation Act. The Shipwrecked Seamen's Society undertakes alleviation of any suffering resulting from loss or injury of a .V bread-winner in a wreck, but the function of the organisation is to deal •. rather with, immediate needs. Three of the crew of eight were V married : men, two. having .children-of ’ school age. It was established to-day, 10 that: the able seamen F., Liewendah.l ]; and AJ'Suvanto have relatives in Helsingfors, Finland, and the shipowners r, communicated with them by cablegram. ' . ? i ' No arrangements-, have yet been a made for nautical inquiry, or inquest. : : - Master mariners who know, the bar i, remarked yesterday that few were as familiar with the. treacherous nature of Hokianga bar ;as the captain and ?! mate of the ill-fated vessel. If there I.’ had been any chance of extricating the schooner from-her dangerous position ,[ the officers of-the'lsabella de Frainc i, were not the men to . bare missed it. They had the confidence, of all seamen ’ who had worked the wdst coast. j. . ; 1 . . , • ' :, Previous Wrecks at Hokianga. ; The first victim of Hokia.nga >bar •> was the mission , schooner Herald, .built by the Rev. H. Williams at Bay of t’. Islands in 1826. In May,’ 1928, she >• went ashore on the beach:and broke up, but the crew escaped. At that •, time, of course, the bar was.not properly charted, although, whaling vessels : frequently called there for fuel, water * and new spars. Fourteen years ha,-e passed since the Hokianga bar claimed its last ship, the barque Joseph Craig, i which, while being towed outward for • Melbourne by the. tug Ohinemuri, 1 parted .with the towline and became a total wreck inside the bar. It was ? on August 7,: 1914. The.crew landed safely, but a southerly gale cpm--1 pletely ■ broke up the barque. The 1 Joseph Craig was an iron vessel of 611 3 tons gross under the command of Captain Airely. Among the crew was the late W. E. Sanders, who as a royal naval reservist during the Great War ’ attained the rank of lieutenant- ’ commander and was-awarded the Vic- ) toria Cross. : HEAVY LOSS FOR OWNERS SHIPPERS ALSO SUFFER. Dominion Special Service. Auckland, July 21. The wreck of the Isabella de Fratne represents a loss of over £4OOO to (lie owners, A. G. Frankham, Ltd. The schooner was insured in the office of the Hartford Company for £1750, but the owners state that this was not. a third of her value. She cost her owners £6OOO to commission, and had only been in the trade five years. The vessel varried a small cargo of 50 to 60 tons of various articles. The underwriters in Auckland have advised the owners that very little insurance was on the cargo, which means that the majority of people who had goods aboard will be heavy losers. One' importer in Kohukohu lost cargo to i the value of £7OO, L