FATAL WRECKS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10035, 28 April 1894, Page 2

FATAL WRECKS.

i'Fbom Ota Own OdEBESpSTOBsi.)

Bluff, April 27,-,

Signal fires being observed yesterday on Eiaapuke, the Harbour Board's s.s Despatch went ovsr in the afternoon, returning last night with the intelligence that two oyster cuttors, the Annie and Alarm, had been wrecked, and another, the Dcveron, beached in Caroline B.iy, Euapuke, on TuesJay last, and that two men, whose names are unknown, had been drowned. To-day (Friday) the Despatch again went over taking the police and others, and has returned after an uusuccessful search for the bodies of the missing awn. It appears that during the height of the terrible gale of Tuesday last the Alarm broke from her anchor at 3 o'clock and was smashed to pieces oa the rocks, but the craw managed to scramble ashore: The Anuii went adrift at 11 o'clock and collided with the Deveron. Her master (31. Doyle) jumped aboard tbe later, but the other two Of the crew stuck t-j the Annie, which went to pieces on the rocks, and the men were drowned almost immediately. Their names are unknown, but one had been a fireman on the Tekoa and the other a butcher on the Hawke's Bay, both of which recently called at the Bluff. Those on board the Deveron managed to beach her in a'safe spot. Th'ero was no insurance on th 3 cutters. ■ • ■ ■■

It h thought that the bodies of the missing men lie embedded in the kelp, of which great quantities have been piled along the shore by the recent gale.