SEA FUNERAL PLANNED

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 27 September 1933, Page 4

SEA FUNERAL PLANNED

FOUR LOST FISHERMEN LAUNCH FROM ISLAND BAY. HOPES OF RESCUE LOST ARRANGEMENTS FOR SERVICE (By Telegraph-Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 26. Little hope is entertained for the safety of the four occupants of the Santina, the Island Bay fishing launch, which has been missing since Monday morning, and arrangements have been made for a sea funeral for the victims to-morrow afternoon.

Further wreckage, apparently from the missing launch, has been recovered and a 12ft rowing boat painted white with a green bottom was found at Fort Ballance to-day. Companions of the missing men in the fishing fleet believe that the launch is almost certain to have foundered, and the Cook Strait Fishermen's Association has made plans for the holding of the funeral service at sea to-morrow. A party will leave Island Bay at 2 o’clock to-mor-row afternoon and will proceed to the neighbourhood of Baring Head, and a service will be held in the vicinity where the launch is believed to have foundered.

Following the return of the tug Toia and an aeroplane after the futile search, for the missing Santina, it was reported to Constable Baker, of the Island Bay police station, that some wreckage believed to be part of the Santina was coming ashore on the rocks near the quarry at Breaker Bay. Some fishermen picked up a ten-gal lon drum of petrol, a piece of floor-board, and a broken bait box. The piece of floor-board was definitely identified by a fisherman as belonging to the Santina. Caught between .some rocks was what at first sight appeared to be a hatch. However, when, with the greatest difficulty, this was pulled ashore, it was found to be a bait-board of the type .used on all the fishing launches. No "more wreckage was found. Baring Head is nearly three miles north-west from Taurakirae Head, which is the western point of Palliser Bay. It is a flat table-point about a couple of miles south-west from Pencarrow Head, and about a mile west of Mr Eric Riddiford’s homestead at Orongorongo. When the storm came up the launch was at its usual fishing ground, which normally is very safe. The coastline is rugged and rocky. This, it is understood, i.s the first fishing mishap to take place at this .spot, and it is also the first occasion on which an Italian fishing crew has been missing in Cook Strait? There have been fishing launch fatalities in the past, but the crews have not- been Italians.