A SAD ACCIDENT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 239, 25 December 1888, Page 3

A SAD ACCIDENT.

FIVE LIVES LOST BY DROWNING. GRIEF LEADS TO DESPERATION Melbourne, Dec. 12. A sad Occident, resultingin the drowning of four young women and an infant, occurred in the bay between Port Melbourne and St. Kilda on Sunday afternoon. About four o’clock a young married man named Henry Beck, employed as stoker on H.M.S. Nelson, having received a few days’ leave, arranged for a sailing trip yesterday afternoon. The party consisted of his wife, his little daughter barely two years of age, and three young women named Elizabeth Gordon, Terion Gordon, and Jane Purcell, who is a cousin of the Gordons. A boat was engaged at Parson’s shed, Williamstown, and the party started in it. It was only a light skiff, about 14ft in length, but Beck insisted upon hoisting a big sail in it. As he was leaving the shed a youth named Edward Rowe saw that Beck had the sheet made fast, and noticing that a strong southerly wind was blowing, advised him to let it go. Beck, however, declined to be advised, and a start was made. They passed the Nelson in safety, and got round about 500yds or 600yd£ off the beach, when the boat was suddenly seen to capsize. The mishap was noticed by those on board the Nelson, and a boat was at once put off to the rescue. The crew pulled with all possible speed to the capsized boat, which was floating bottom upwards. Beck was clinging on to the keel, but none of the others could be seen at first. As they drew nearer the crew caught sight of two of the women floating in the water, and quite close to the boat was the body of the child. They were at once picked up, and then Beck was taken from his dangerous position. He was almost exhausted and the awful calamity which he had witnessed, and by which he had lost his wife and only child, completely unnerved him, and he could give no very coherent statement of the affair. The bodies were taken to the shore by the Nelson boat, and Dr Cascades summoned. He applied all the remedies possible, but without effect, as life was quite extinct. The mother of the Gordons is a widow, living in Newport. Some years ago two of her sons were accidentally drowned in the bay, and prior to that she lost a brother in the same way. She only had the two daughters, who were aged eighteen and fifteen respectively. Her niece, Jane Purcell, who was nineteen years of age, and an orphan, had only come to spend a few days’ holiday with her cousin, and was to have resumed work next day. Beck has been a stoker on board the Nelson for about twelve months. He has not been very much longer in the colonies, and it is only about six months since his wife followed him out. They bad only the one child, the infant that was drowned. At the inquest Beck said they were going about, when the four women rose up and ran to the other side, capsizing the boat, and throwing all the occupants in the water. He was unable to swim, but they al! clung to the bottom of the boat with the exception of the child, which floated on the surface of the water near at hand. Each time a swell struck the boat one of the number let go, until he alone was left. He had never managed a boat before by himself, though he had often been in the Nelson’s boat. He had no desire to go out in the boat at all, but the women insisted upon it. A verdict of “ Accidental death ” was returned.

When the news of the disaster was broken to the Gordon family on Sunday afternoon by Senior Constable Delap, a painful scene ensued, Mrs Gordon being seized with fits, and the eldest brother, Charles Gordon, becoming more like a madman than a rational being, for he was very much attached to his sisters. After breaking away from the police office several times, Delap secured him and took off nearly all his clothes, in the hope of keeping him in, but suddenly he broke away again, burst through a window, and jumped over the back fence. He ran away, with Delap after him, down to the sea, declaring as he flew along that he must go to his sisters’ rescue. Reaching the water he sprang in, and started to swim across to Port Melbourne. Delap raised an alarm at Parson’s boat shed close by, and was about to go out after him in a boat, bus it was pointed out that a boat was watching him. Those in charge, however, did not go near him too soon, as while he was strong and fresh it would be dangerous. He is a remarkable good swimmer, and it is believed that he could have reached Port Melbourne. In due time he was approached, picked up and conveyed home, where he has been ever since in a bad state of health. Mrs Gordon’s condition also causes anxiety.