MYSTERY OF THE VESPER.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17283, 26 September 1916, Page 11

MYSTERY OF THE VESPER.

SCOW'S CREW MISSING. Regarding the forty-seven-ton scow Vesper.' of Auckland, which was found capsized lately off the 'Great .Barrier Island, with no sign of her crew, the " New Zealand Herald" says:—The Vesper, it is understood, left Whangarei on Wednesday, September 13, with lime, or cement, for Clevedon. Strong winds-.prevailed on the day following, but since then, it is reported, there 1 has ,been no bad weather. The Vesper was built in 1902, and has always been considered by her owners'as a good sea vessel. Captain Davis has been employed by Messrs Biddick Bros, for about four years. How the accident occurred is a" mystery.

According to an official the Vesper is described as a round bilge scow, and therefore less likely to overturn than the flat-bot»tomed, square-sided type. A seaman of considerable experience stated that scows were good sea vessels as long as water did not get inside them. When that happened there was a tendency for water to lodge at one side of the vessel, although this weald be less in the case of a scow of the round bilge type. The Vesper was not the first scow to overturn, remarked the seaman, and some years ago the la to Hon J. A. Millar, as Minister of Marine, had considered the question of limiting the voyages which scows might undertake. Another theory to .account for the capsize is that tho vessel might have been travelling with her centreboard up. and that a sudden gust down one or other of the gullies of Great Barrier Island, catching the vessel unawares, overturned her. There is a faint hope that the crew, having taken .to the dinghy, might have bean forced to land at one of the numerous bays of the island far from the settlements. In that case it would he some time before they could report their safety..