SENSATIONAL SEA TRAGEDY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, 1 August 1912, Page 5

SENSATIONAL SEA TRAGEDY.

WOMAN AND CHILD OVERBOARD SANK BEFORE RESCUE COULD BE EFFECTED. [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION.] AUCKLAND, July 31. A sensational tragedy occurred on July 22 during the voyage of the steamer Zealandia between Honolulu and Suva.

Mrs Ettie Opland, a married woman and her son, six years of age, who were travelling steerage, Mere, lost overboard and drowned. No one aboard the vessel appears to have actually seen the victims of the affairs fall overboard and it is, therefore, somewhat of a mystery as to whether it was a case of double- suicide or an accident.

On the date of the tragedy, about 1 p.m., the cry of ‘man overheard” was raised and immediately the utmost commotion and consternation was caused aboard the vessel.

The bugle had just sounded for luncheon and nearly all the passengers were in the dining saloon at the time of the occurrence.

Simultaneously with the raising of the alarm there was a hurried stampede to the deckFor a second or two the forms of the woman and the child were -scon struggling in tlio sea and then the waters closed over them, blotting out every trace of the tragedy with tlio exception of a small cap which floated on the waves.

The woman and tlio hoy, it would seem, were last seen going up the companionway leading to the boat deck. A moment or two later a splash was heard, followed immediately bv another arid heavier splash. ' The sea was comparatively smooth at the time and the vessel was rolling only very slightly.

At one the hell was rung from the bridge for the ship- to be swung round and there was a quick response by the engineers to the signal. As tlie two forms swept past the side of the steamer a couple of lifebuoys were thrown out, blit, although one of them is stated to have drifted in close proximity to the woman, she does not appeal- to have attempted to reach it. 'ldle officers and crew ran to man the emergency boat and the chief officer, Mr Neal, clambered up the railing on to the boat deck and wa-s quickly in his place in the boat and giving orders.

The boat quickly reached the water but there was no sign of either the mother or the lx>y only a small cap was recovered—the sole relic of the grim affair.

Inquiries among the officers and passengers os to the circumstances surrounding the affair are somewhat conflicting. The officers generally seem to have no doubt whatever that toe case was one of suicide on the part of the mother and the hoy.

The railings of the deck, they state, are so secure that it would be impossible to get overbaord without deliberately climbing over the rails. In support of this contention is the fact that the woman and the child •had not gone into luncheon when the other third-class passengers did and as they had been in the habit of doing. Another and perhaps more charitable view is that the child fell ore,» board and that the mother flung herself after him.

It is rumored that the boy made a number of attempts to get through the railings, but had been prevented from doing so. The port at which Mrs Opland embarked was Honolulu. _ Her husband was not aboard 1 and his (whereabouts do not appear to be known.