ILL-FATED GREYCLIFFE

Northern Advocate, 10 November 1927, Page 5

ILL-FATED GREYCLIFFE

DUAL INQUIRY OPENED DEATHS DUE TO DROWNING IN PRACTICALLY ALL CASES. (United Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Received 9 a.m.) SYDNEY, November 9.

A combined State and Federal inquiry into the ferry boat disaster opened- tpday before Mr Justice Campbell, but adjourned till Wednesday next after hearing only two witnesses, to permit counsel and different interested parties to prepare their eases, also to allow the police to make further inquiries and perhaps recover more bodies.

Dr Palmer, Government Medical Officer, gave evidence that, in his opinion, drowning was the cause of almost every death. Ex-Dctective Comyn, who was a passenger on another ferry boat, from which he witnessed the accident, testified that when he first sighted the Greycliffc she was about four lengths ahead of the Tahiti, and appeared to he bearing in towards the larger ship. The Greyeliffe appeared to be drawn in towards the Tahiti, although the former apparently had not altered her course. Then he heard one short blast from the Tahiti, and the latter appeared to push the ''Greyeliffe over, striking her twice, forward and amidships. The Attorney-General announced that it had been arranged for the chief and second officers of the Tahiti to return from Wellington by the Maunganui, arriving tomorrow. —A.N.Z.

THRILLING STORIES,

TOLD BY SCHOOLBOYS,

SYDNEY, November 5,

Seated at the stern of the Greycliffo were four schoolboys, Leslie Brook, Ken Horler (son of the town clerk of Vaucluse), K, Berliner, and R. Fairweathers. Horler, when seen last night, said that they were singing, shouting and "mucking up” generally just before the collision occurred, Leslie Brook, of 19 Robinson-place, Watson’s Bay, said that he heard the Tahiti’s whistle. The vessel seemed to be so close that the boys decided to move away. No sooner had they moved than the crash occurred and .the Greycliffe semed to tip over. “I was drawn down by suction,” said Brook, "and whirled around in all directions by the current. When I came up to the top I grabbed the biggest piece of wood I could find. I saw Doris Garrett struggling in the water, and I helped her to safety. Other passengers were floundering around looking fpr something to support them, crying and calling for help. I saw one lifeboat come from the Tahiti, but it was a long time after the collision. Launches came from every direction, but there was such confusion that nobody seemed to know what to do. I am a good swimmer, and I am sure that it was because of that that my life was saved, I saw another boy, Ken. Lankshire, in the water. He could not swim, and I do not know what became of him. I saw Dr Read in the water. There was wreckage everywhere, and it seems as though the boat must have been knocked to splinters, because few pieces of wood were large enough to support anybody. It was terrible to see the scrambling and commotion in water which was whirled round as though it was boiling. I must have gone a long way down, and I took many mouthfuls and felt very sick when I came up again.”

Horler said that he must have been dragged down twenty-five feet. He also was a good swimmer, and as it became darker and darker as he sank he knew that he was down a considerable depth. When he came to the top his leg was caught in a rope and lie was dragged down, again, and he had considerable difficulty in freeing himself. Horler was in bed last night with his bead bandaged, his ankle injured, and with cuts and scratches all over his body.

Doris Garrett paid a tribute to the assistanee that was given to her by the schoolboys. She said that they saved her life. Her father was on board, but she did not know what had become of him. When the collision seemed to be inevitable some men told a number of girls to go round to the j other side of the ship. As soon, as she reached the other side the crash occurred, water came into the deck, and she was knocked into the harbour by the tilting of a seat. “I am a good swimmer,” she said, “but I did not have time to swim. The water whirled me round and round, and when I came up after being drawn down I did not know where 'I was. While under the water I seemed to think that I was asleep, and when I came to I expected to find myself in bed. Leslie Brooks managed to get me onto a floating drum. Nancy Lewis was with me, and the boys managed to get her cn to the same drum. Later we were picked up by the tug Bimbi. T saw one lifeboat launched from the Tahiti, but that was when everybody was

picked up." BEREAVED MAN'S NARRATION. A dramatic story of the disaster was

related by Mr J. Corby, one of the

survivors, who was picked up by the Kummulla. Trembling violently, and with bleeding face, the first words Mr Corby uttered When he walked unsteadily from vessel to wharf were—-

‘Oh, God; my poor wife and child. Chey have gone.” Assured by a ‘Herald” reporter that many of the jassengers had been saved, Mr Corby related what he knew of the tragedy. : ‘I was taking my wife and daughter, aged six years, to Watson’s Bay to spend the afternoon,” he said, “and as we were sitting talking on the top deck of the Grey cl iff e we heard some women scream. On looking round I saw a. big steamer almost on top of us. I sprang for some lifebelts, and shouted to my wife to rush down the gangway. I seized a lifebelt, and was just making for the gangway to join my wife and daughter when there was a terrific crash. Our boat seemed to have been completely splintered by the impact. I waas immediately thrown into the water, and went down with the anguishing screams of women and children stiil ringing in my ears. My next recollection was that I felt myself coming towards the surface of the water. I thought I would never reach there, so long was it before my head appeared above the surface. I was surrounded by a mass of floating ddbris and, clutching hold of something, looked about for my wife and child. Everywhere around mo were struggling women and girls, some with their faees horribly mutilated. What happened after that I do not know-, for the next I remembered was when X ‘came round ’ on the ferry steamer.”

Mr Corby is a fettlor, employed in the Railway Department, and his home is at Moree. He arrived in Sydney on Tuesday with his wife and daughter on holidays, and was staying at the Hotel Burlington, Haymarket. His wife, he said, could not swim. Mr Corby partially collapsed on the wharf during the interview, and was taken charge of by ambulance officers and placed in hospital.