FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10311, 19 March 1895, Page 2

FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.

-: News has been reeeived'.o'faVead; fatal bos^t, accident fit BtewatS; leiUn'^ on i^e by which Mr George F. Allen, of Gore,.with his wife and child lost their lives. Mr and Mr? Allen and their adopted son, with Mr VVYi "AY Broad.beqti'pf Gore, wore out in a boifc,; when' a puff of wmd <a.uaed her to ospsizeJ/theSsnaeSTUPtiirir tfmo being fasjij;: Mrs Allen disappeared at ouoe, and Allen and his son sank after a hard struggle Braadbentwas rescaed ia an exhausted condition. Alien had: purchased 17.0 acre? at -Brtewpn Inlet, and had' just' built a hpus6 with the intention of perm&eiitly; resid- '^. ing on the island. ■■>. Allen, whowas * 'carp^'nter^ and -painter, ■ had, lately takea.to landscape painting, and gome of his,''work- waft .highly fbought of »» showing undoubted talent.;; He was about 37 years of age;, His .wife was a daughter tf, the late Mr B. K. Jl'l^B.key, who had been in business in Danedin'for many years. The news caused some excitement in Gore, where Mr Allen and his Island yepture hud,como.into much prominence.of lata throughihe deceased resenting a remark contained ia the Standard. . '»■ •■ ;■ .

Mr Broadbenfc;; in a letter to his >wife_at Gore, giving particulars of th,e sad boating accident at Stewart. Island,; says: — "We started back for the camp, with a lot' of sail on. I tried to advise. Allen not to sail the boat, but he would not listen to reason. -We had gona abpufc a mile, when tb.6 boat capsized. We all hung on for a while, and then the boat sank from'under us; then she oame .up'again, and we all got on the bottom df,her, and cried for help for about" »■ quarter of an hour., and then tlje boat turned over again and left. us.all in the water. Allen had hold of his wife and his boy p.ll the time. When the boat turned over the last tima Alien grasped me by the vest and ciuDgon. I begged of hip» to let me go, but he would not, and so we all went down together. : While' wei were ijndor the water I slipped off my vest, and loft it in his hands, 'and then I ro»e to the surface, and. swam away a bit. Then I swain back to the boat, and the. child came to the surface, and I gofc-.hbld of him, and put him on the bottom of the boat; but I never paw A'ien or the wife rise again. I kept the child on the boat for a while, until she ,|urced over again, and washpd us.both.o9, ; I. then lost the child ; the last time '.I saw the boy he was -.floating awayon my csiat. ■I.,.stuck to the boat, .and cried out for about an hour, when a man named Rankin, a'settler, put off in a boat" and saveld mo. "(As soon the boat went over Itook off *my bqots, and Allen said to me that I was foolish for doing so.) Eankin and I came over, and, we got a pajrty bf men to grapale for the bodies, but we did not get them." The sheet it appears was not only made fast bat two or three1 turns of the rope bad been taken. This most ■ dangerous_ expedient is never resorted to except by novices. The boa(; is said to be a dangerous one. Sho capsized in the New river some years ago, and four of the then occupants were drowned.