Double Drowning at Greymouth

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 7064, 25 January 1933, Page 6

Double Drowning at Greymouth

Two Men Lost in Heavy Undertow UNAVAILING} RESCUE EFFORTS Per Press Association GREYMOUTH, Last Night. There was a double surfing fatality at four o’clock this afternoon at Blaketown beach, south of the harbour entrance, the scene of previous tragedies. The victims wore:— Elias Nordstrom, aged 24 years. Charles Kerr McAnulty, aged 27 years. Both were residents of Greymouth and both were officers of tho local unemployed organisation. They were poor swimmers and waded out over waist-deep. There wero thirty others also surfing in the vicinity, who stato that the backwash at the time was exceptional. Tho tide was making. McAnulty and Nordstrom were carried beyond their depth, valiant efforts to save them failing. All the surfers found difficulty in tlio exceptional backwash. One of them, Ivan James Curin, managed to grasp McAnulty, but the latter’s struggles, combined with the undertow, forced the other to release him after bringing him six yards toward the shore. Curin called Nordstrom to help him, but ho was in a bad way and soon disappeared, Curin returning ashore only with difficulty. Another surfer, Patrick Blanchficld, made an effort to reach the victims, but as they were then drifting rapidly, he was obliged to seek his own safety.

Three attempts with tho aid of a lifeline wero made from the shore by William Smith, Michael Gordon, Frank Moss and Peter Affleck to effect a rescue, but the reel broke at the first two attempts. On tho third effort it was extended to the full length of the line, 400 feet, but the victims' then had disappeared.

Up till 10 p.m. (high water) there had been no sign of the bodies. Nordstrom was a native of Northumberland, and leaves a wife and daughter aged two; also a brother at Dobson and a mother in England. MeAmiltv was a native of Blnntyrc, Scotland. Ho leaves a widowed sister at Greymouth, a brother Andrew at Christchurch, and four married sisters at Blantyro. Both men were formerly Dobson miners.