TWO OTHERS REACH SHORE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 12

TWO OTHERS REACH SHORE

GRAPHIC STORY RELATED

ORDEAL IN SHIP'S DINGHY Lashed by tempestuous seas off Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf on Thursday night, the 98-ton scow Rangi, owned by the Leyland-O'Brien Timber Company, Limited, heeled over and turned turtle. Four of the six persons on board were drowned when a 14ft. dinghy in which.all were escaping was overwhelmed about half a mile off Torbay, or Deep Creek, on the mainland. Two were washed ashore alive. The victims were:— Captain Peter Johannsen Petersen, aged 54, married, of 4 Greenfield Road, Epsom. Mr. Harold Helgeson, leading hand, aged 34, married, of 104 Nelson Street, City. Mr. Charles De Faire, ship's cook, aged 64, single, of 41 Nelson Street, City. A youth named William, aged 20. No other details are known concerning him. A member of the crew and a boy on a holiday voyage were saved, neither suffering greatly from his ordeal. They were: — Mr. John William Frederick Mason, ship's boy, aged 21, single, of 68 1 Manukau Road, Epsom. Donald William Woodroffe, an Auckland Grammar School boy, aged 14, the son of Mr. W. D. Woodroffe, of 675 Manukau Road, Epsom.

The scow was on a voyage from Omokoroa, near Tauranga, to Auckland with a cargo of timber. The crew had just abandoned the vessel when she overturned, and had made a hazardous 10mile journey in the dinghy when it was swamped. Mr. Mason and the boy Woodroffe were washed ashore in Winstone s Cove, where the body of Mr. De Faire was later discovered. No trace of the other men has been found, although extensive searches were made yesterday.