LOST IN SURF

Northern Advocate, 18 April 1932, Page 6

LOST IN SURF

TRAGEDY AT MURIWAI

WHALE BOAT CAPSIZES,

ONE MAN DROWNED

(Special to “Northern Advocate.”) AUCKLAND, This Day

Tragedy attended the attempt to land a shore line from the cable steamer Recorder at Muriwai yesterday morning, when Mr .1. Tyrrel,- a member of the crew of the vessel, was drowned.. With three others, deceased was in a whale boat which capsized in the surf. The life-line at Muriwai was run out and three men were rescued, but Mr Tyrrel could not be found, and his body was later recovered from the surf.

The Recorder has been engaged for some time transferring the terminal of one of the cables formerly joining Wellington with Sydney to Muriwai. She arrived off Muriwai Beach on Saturday morning, and an effort was made to send a line ashore with a rocket apparatus, but it was found impossible to get the line across thei breakers. It. was therefore decided to send the whaleboat ashore yesterday morning, and the attempt was made at 9..‘50, with the tragic result.

It was then decided to carry a line from the beach to the Recorder by means of an aeroplane, and yesterday afternoon Mr D. M.. Allan, the Auckland Aero Club instructor, landed on the beach with one of the club’s Moth machines. A rocket line was coiled down on the beach with one end affixed to a stake in the sand, and the other attached to the tail skid of the aeroplane by a light cord. The plane then took off and flew out over the breakers, the. light cord snapping when the rocket line became taut. A cork jacket had been tied to the seaward end of the rocket line, and this floated about .lOC yards beyond the breakers, where it was picked up by the Recorder’s launch.

•It had been intended to use the rocket line to haul a heavier line ashore and in turn to use the heavier line to haul the shore end of the cable to the beach. However, when the heavy line was coining through the breakers the rocket line snapped. The plane had by this time left on its return to Mangere, and operations had to be susended. The plane went out to Muriwai again today, when a furthei effort was made to get the cable ashore. . • "