BOATING FATALITY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5732, 30 October 1905, Page 5

BOATING FATALITY.

MISHAP TO A FISHING PARTY. ONE MAN DROWNED. NARROW ESCAPE OF THREE OTHERS. A party of four men, while out fishing at Island Bay yesterday morning, met with an accident that terminated in tho loss of one of their number—Mr Charles McDonald—and tho narrow escape of the rest. Mr McDonald, with ins brother-in-law, Mr Jones, foreman for Messrs Odlin and Co., Island Bay, Mr Samuel McMillan, and Mr Alfred Lason, wont out in a small boat early in the morning on a fishing excursion. They pulled over to a little island some distance away, and remained there for about two hours. They then started to return to the shore, and were about halfway across when the boat shipped a few seas—there was a heavy swell on—and swamped. Messrs McMillan and Lason clung to tho upturned boat, and were rescued a little later by a fisherman. In tho meantime Messrs Jones and McDonald swam towards a yacht moored close by, Mr Jones reached it, but Dir McDonald, becoming exhausted or being seized with cramp, sank before Ins companions could reach him, and was drowned. Mr Jones, on. being rescued, at once set about giving the necessary information to tho relatives of tho missing man and to the police. A dragging party, -which included a brother and friends of Mr McDonald and Constable OTlailoraai, of tho Mount Cook Station, was formed, and with tho help of a fisherman, who made a sot of grappling irons to supplement the drag available, they searched tho locality for the whole of tho remainder of the day until 5 o’clock. No trace of tho body was, however, found. Tho conditions were very unfavourable to dragging operations, tho water being too rough. A renewed search will bo instituted today. Ifc is possible that the body may bo washed ashore, by tho sot of tho water. The deceased was a single man, and resided at Horner street, Newtown. He was a carpenter by trade, and had been working for Messrs Hunt and McDonald upon tho building now in course of erection for- the Wellington Building and Investment Society, on Lambton quay.