ILL-FATED PARTY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23381, 24 June 1939, Page 22

ILL-FATED PARTY

EVENING ON A lIULK YOUNG MAN DROWNED EVIDENCE AT INQUEST WENT OFF IN A DINGHY Aeroplanes and motor-boats searching tlie Waitemata Harbour, anil notices posted all over New Zealand, lia\e failed to disclose the body of a young man drowned in Shoal Hay early tins year. This was revealed at an inquest yesterdav into the death ol Robert I'ranklin .Tones, an engineer, aged 22, whose last cries for help wore heard by friends on i, hulk at about 0.: i() on the night of January 28. Evidence given hv several witnesses at the inquest, which was conducted by the coroner, Mr. I l '. K. Hunt, showed that on the night in question a number of voting men and women attended a party on hoard the. bulk "Wanganui, which is used by the Northern Steamship Company as an oil depot, and is anchored in Shoal Hav. J.hero was a keg of beer at the party and the evening -was spent- in singing in a cabin. Cries ior Help Heard \ young woman who attended the party said that she went up 011 deck with Jones, who talked with her for ten minutes. hen ho asked her to go For a row with him in a dinghy she refused, and he went o(f alone. About fifteen minutes later it was learned that he was in diHieulties. Cries for help were heard and a life-belt was thrown out. Three members of the party prepared to go to his assistance, but were stopped. The cries diminished and were heard no more. John Kelly Clark, the keeper of tho hulk, who had brought the party 011 board in his launch, had loft the hulk and gone to Devonport for more friends, said the young woman. On his return be searched the harbour for the dinghy. Although deceased had had some of the beer, ho was not intoxicated, and looked quite normal. Finding of the Dinghy Norman Irwin, an employee of the Auckland Drainage Board, said that ho found tho dinghy early next morning. Lt was about half a mile from Watchman Island. One oar and one rowlock were missing, and, although the plug was in, the boat was leaking badly. "Does this sort of party occur regularly in the hulks?" asked Mr. Hunt. He was assured by a member of the wharf police that it did not. A verdict of accidental drowning was returned.