DANGEROUS BAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 49, 26 August 1939, Page 10

DANGEROUS BAR

TWO BOATS CAPSIZED

POLICE INSPECTOR DROWNED

(From "The Post's" Representative.!

SYDNEY, August 14.

1 Alexander C. Muir, 59, an inspector of the New South Wales police force, was drowned in Brisbane Water, aa arm of Broken Bay, about 30 mile* north of Sydney, when a 16ft launch, in which he was returning from a fishing excursion capsized in heavy surf on a bar. Leaving two companions clinging to the overturned boat, Muir tried to swim ashore.

Muir, Leslie Roy Whatley, and A. C Fowler, all staying at a Woy Woy guest-house, had spent most of* the day fishing in open water from the launch, owned by Fowler. When they were returning, the boat was swamped by the heavy swell on the bar. It cap-: sized when the men were attempting to bail it out. It was almost an hour before the plight of the three men was noticed from the shore. Muir, meanwhile, decided to try to swim to the shore for help, using the pine floorboard of the launch as float. He disappeared.

When the alarm was given, a fisherman rescued Whatley and Fowler. The two men were on the verge of collapse, but were still clinging to the upturned boat. A man "in charge of another launch found Muir 100 yards from the capsized boat. His condition was so bad that he was rushed to a jetty, where ambulance officers and doctors tried for two hours in vain to resuscitate him.

A young man, James Mitchell, was fortunate to .escape drowning on the previous night on the same-bar. He was rowirfg across the water to spend the weekend with friends when his boat was caught-"in the tidal:rip and capsized. It became dark soon afterwards. Mitchell had been in the water, clinging to 'his upturned boat, for aboutan hour and a half before his cries were heard by Alfred Farrell, who was camped on the bank. Carrying a hurricane lantern and an electric torch Farrell waded but until he was in water up to his armpits. Mitchell had sufficient strength, left to swim to him, but, overcome by cold and the effects of immersion, he collapsed soon afterwards. Farrell carried him ashore, but had considerable difficulty ia 'dragging him out of the water. H« successfully revived him. •