DROWNING ACCIDENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20137, 24 December 1928, Page 8

DROWNING ACCIDENT.

THE LOSS OF TWO LIVES.

SAILING BOAT CAPSIZES.

THIRD MAN SWIMS ASHORE. DESPERATE BATTLE WITH WAVES. [BY TELECiRAI'ir. —OWN* COrtRESI'ONDENT.] WARKWOKTH. Sunday. Two lives were lost when a sailing boat, containing three young men, capsized in a choppy sea about half a mile off Leigh this afternoon. The victims, both singlo men, were:— Vivian Maurico Donaldson, of Lower Matakana, aged 26 years. Lala Brown, of Pakiri, aged 19 years. The third occupant of the boat, Trevor Taylor, of Leigh, aged 19, was saved, lie had a gruelling experience after the boat, a 17-footer, capsi/.ed, but with tho aid of a paddle, used as a float, lie made the shore after a desperate half-milo swim. Thoroughly exhausted after his battle in a choppy sea, he was unable to give more than a disconnected account of tho occurrence which, without warning, turned a pleasure cruiso into a tragedy of the sea. The boat later came ashore at a point between Leigh and Ti I'oint. The caps of tho two drowned men were also found on the beach. No success has so far met the police search for the bodies. In a desire to "try out" the boat, a new craft, the three men left Leigh, bound for Hawaii, about ten miles away, at 3 p.m. They had gone only about a mile when, in an attempt to turn, the boat capsized. Mr. Taylor said his two companions were clinging to the capsized boat when he last saw them. Both victims were well-known in the district. Mr. Donaldson was a son of Mr. Eric M. Donaldson, a retired civil servant, now farming at Lower Matakana. Lala Brown, a native, was engaged in fanning with his relatives at Pakiri.