COASTAL VESSEL WRECKED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 17 January 1939, Page 5

COASTAL VESSEL WRECKED

NEAR SYDNEY HEADS CREW REACH SHORE BY MEANS OF ROPE lU.P.A.—By Eler.trie Telegraph—Copy rightl (Received 17th January, 11.25 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Wireless advice was received from the master that the small wooden coastal vessel Belbowrie, of 218 tons, which ran on a reef off Maroubra Point at about 9 o’clock last night, were urgently in need of help otherwise they would have to abandon the ship. The pilot vessel Captain Cook immediately went to the scene, about four miles south of Sydney Heads. The Belbowrie later broke in two, and is believed to be i total loss. The crew were not rescued by breeches buoy as at first reported, but made their way hand over hand along a rope through sixty feet of boiling surf to the shore. Captain Dixon, who was the last to leave the ship, became exhausted while still over the water, and with the cry, “I’m done,” let go the line and fell into the surf. A number of men clashed in and dragged him to land.