DISASTER TO SEA SCOUTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15482, 13 December 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

DISASTER TO SEA SCOUTS.

BOAT RUN DOWN ON THE THAMES FOUR LIVES LOST. Fotrß sea scouts were drowned in the Thames near Gravesend recently as tho result of a collision between a training ketch upon which a party of scouts were spending the week-end and the steamer Hogarth, bound for Aberdeen. The names of tho victims are :—Roger S. Carnall, assistant scoutmaster, and the. following scouts : Horace Bendell, Roland Puruetl, Christopher Witt. The ketch, which was known as the Mirror, was practically cut in two. and sunk in less than a couple of minutes. At the time the lads were in tneir bunks, and only the greatest promptitude of the crew of the Hogarth and an assistant scoutmaster on the yacht averted more disastrous results. The Hogarth is a steel screw vessel, owned by the Aberdeen Steam Navigation Company. She was built in 1893, with .1 tonnage of 1213, and Lloyd's register gives the name of her master as F. Ward. Thirteen scouts were on board the ketch at the time of the disaster, in addition to the captain of the craft, Captain Olley, of Burnham-on-Croncb, and two seamen. Hei ->?i-t Tunbridge and Sidney Spooner, whe form the permanent crew. The scouts boarded the .Mirror late 111 the afternoon, with the object of cruising as far as the mouth of the river during the week-end. They were a merry little party, and whilcd 'away the hours until the tide was favourable for leaving the moorings, by a musical gathering in the saloon. Later thev made themselves useful about the deck—each lad possessing a serviceable knowledge of seamanship—in setting sails, weighing the anchor, and performing a variety of jobs preparatory to starting. ' ' A few minutes after 10 o'clock the Mirror was under way. There was no moon, but the night was clear, and objects at a considerable distance could be easily perceived. By 11 o'clock, when the ketch had reached the bend of the river opposite Highani, all the lads had turned 111 below with the exception of assistant scoutmaster Yowles and Captain Olley and the two seamen, who remained on deck. The Hogarth had been first sighted 111 mid-stream half a-miio away, and the Mirror was tacking towards the Essex I shore when the Hogarth crashed into her. Such was the damage wrought bv the blow that the frail ketch heeled over on to the steamer and sank almost immediately. How so many of the lads escaped, having regard to the circumstances, is remarkable and is doubtless as much due to the coolness and resource witn which the scout movement imbues its members as to the promptness of the rescue measures adopted cri board the Hogarth. Ropes were (lung out to the Mirror, and a boat, lowered from the steamer, picked up tome of the struggling scouts.