MOTHER AND CHILD DROWNED.

Northern Advocate, 15 March 1913, Page 2

MOTHER AND CHILD DROWNED.

A SYDNEY BOATING ACCIDENT

A drowning accident attended by most pathetic circumstances occurred shortly after 2 o'clock on February 23 in Sydney Harbor, opposite Cremorne, when Beatrice Matilda Dummett, a young married woman, and her little daughter, Olive Weart Dummett, 2% years of age, were drowned through the pleasure boat they were in capsizing.

According to the story furnished by the husband, Thomas Dummett, who resided with his wife at Balmain, ho left home-about 8.30 am., and went to Balmain, and hired a pleasure boat with a sail. He then rowed round to Yeend Street, in Waterview Bay, Balmain, where Mrs Dummett and their little daughter got into the boat. They rowed to Athol Bight, and on arriving there the little party went ashore to have dinner. About halfpast one they left Athol Bight to go for a sail. They were running before the wind with a leg of mutton sail. All went well until opposite Cremorne, near Fort Denison, when Dammett jibed, and the boat rolled over, allowing the water to rush iv and swamp it. In an instant they were all struggling in the water. Dummett managed to g-et his wife and child on to the boat, but this had been no sooner accomplished than the boat rolled over again, throwing the party into the water once more. Mrs Dummett and the child then drifted away from the boat, and, becoming separated, were drowned. The two bodies were picked up by Horace Bradley and James Wiseman, who were in separate skiffs, and conveyed to the Government steam launch, Gladys, which appeared on the scene of the accident about the same time. They were taken with all haste to H.M.S. Encounter, at Garden Island, where Dr McFarlane, the ship's surgeon, pronounced life extinct. Mr. Dummett was picked up by the Gladys in an exhausted condition.