THE BARQUE LAIRA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 9547, 1 October 1892, Page 1

THE BARQUE LAIRA.

The West Australian of the sth and Bth inst. contains the following report of the death of Captain P. J. Hughes, of the barque Laira :— "Afatal accident took place at Freinantle on Saturday morning alongside: the jetty, at the berthage of the barque Laira, which arrived a few days since from Dunedin and Hobart. The sadness of the fatality is intensified by the attendant circumstances, which, as will be seen, disclose a most pitiful state of affairs with regard to the victim. The deck hands were engaged in discharging part of the cargo, and started on Saturday morning to hoist off some of the deck loading of heavy kauri beams. The work of discharging was carried on by means of an ordinary winch, and it was durine the hoisting of a heavy beam of kauri pine that the accident occurred. It appears that the tackling had been adjusted in the usual way, and the donkey driver, M'Coll, set the engine going to hoist the load up to the level of the jetty. Meanwhile Captain P. J.. Hughes, master of the vessel, had been superintending the work, and seeing that everything was going on right. When the beam was suspended at a :height of about 12ft from the hatch >vay he was standing alongside the centre of the combing, and nearly directly beneath the winch chain. It was at this moment that the sliding gear on the winch side was disconnected from the fixed cogwheels, and the winding drum having no stay upon it, let the suspended weight with a run down upon the unlortunate captain. The crushing weight of the beam, which must at least have weighed a ton, added to the velocity of its fall, felled Captain Hughes to the deck, and the timber striking him upon the back pinned his body across the combing of the hatchway. Although his ribs were protruding from his body, and his chest almost flattened by the weight, he retained consciousness during the trying task of extricating him from beneath the beam. Then followed the painful necessity of conveying the mangled man to Perth, because in Fremantle accommodation was not available. On the way to the Colonial Hospital the sufferer, who retained consciousness almost to the last, expressed a wish to be buried from the residence of his old friend, Captain D. Hughes, of Freniantle. Soon after his arrival at the hospital he expired. The funeral of the deceased took place yesterday, according to his last wish, and a large number of persons followed his remairis to the grave. -" The experiences of the deceased captain during the trip of the Laira to Fremantle have been of the most troubled character, and the sad endin" to the hardship he and his crew have undergone makes the fatality the more pitiful. When approaching the coast of Tasmania in April last, on the voyage to Freroantle, a terrifiy gale dismantled the barque and put her on her beam ends for 30 hours. Almost every one of the crew received such injuries that they had to remain in hospital for three weeks on putting into Hobart, and the captain was also severely hurt, though he bore his suffering in order that he might get his vessel refitted and put to sea again."