FIGHT AGAINST SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 106, 8 May 1933, Page 9

FIGHT AGAINST SEA

YOUTH FOUND DROWNED

MISHAP IN DINGHY /

(Special to "The Evening Post.") AUCKLAND, May 6. A verdict of accidental drowning was returned by the Coroner, Mr. Wyvern Wilson, S.M., at the adjourned inquest concerning the death of Frank William Taylor, aged 16, whose body was found in a swamped dinghy washed ashore on a beach at Poiiit Chevalier oh the morning of April 22. The boy, whose parents reside at Nelson, recently came to Auckland to stay with relatives, Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Matthews, of Henderson. He had set out from Henderson on a fishing trip the previous day, with the intention of going as far : s Te Atatu. The weather was boisterous, and when the lad did not return that night, seareft parties were, organised, but to no. avail. Dr. W. Gilmour, pathologist at the Auckland Hospital, who had conducted a post- mortem, stated that in his opinion death wag due to drowning. Goorgo Fowler, of St. Michael's Avenue, Point Chevalier, stated, that when he discovered the dinghy on the morning of April 22, the deceased lad was lying in the boat, which contained six or seven inches of water. The 10 foot mast was out of the boat and lying alongside it. Constable Spjllman, of Point Chevalier, gave evidence that when he inspected it, the boat leaked very badly and was not. seaworthy. The mast was tangled with the anchor rope, which had a noose at one end, as if an anchor had been attached, bnt< had slipped off. Every indication showed that the lad had had a terrible struggle with the heavy seas of the previous night. "It seems "quite clear that this unfortunate boy, who came from tho Nelson district and was not used to boating, set off on a short cruise, but was driven out into tho harbour by the weather, and in his fight against the seas was either struck by the : falling mast or else fell unconscious through fatigue into the waterlogged boat, and was1 thereby drowned," said the Coroner, in. returning a formal verdict of accidental death by drowning.