WRECK OF THE OMAKA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18158, 1 February 1921, Page 5

WRECK OF THE OMAKA

FURTHER PARTICULARS,

(Pee United Press Association.)

BLENHEIM. January 31. The Omaka was an auxiliary schooner, the engine being a 45 h.p. oil machine. She was a woodeh vessel, built at Auckland in 1886. and her dimensions were; 'Length 78ft, beam 20.6 ft. depth 6.2 ft, and she was of 64 tons gross. She was bought by Eokford Bros, in May last, and was used previously in the New Zealand coastal trade under the name of May Howard.

She left on the ill-fated trip from Blenheim at 4 o’clock on Saturday afternoon, and crossed the Wairau bar at 9 p.m. Her cargo comprised peas and chaff. A heavy southerly gale was blowing. The insurances are not available.

The name of the ship’s boy lost in the Omaka wreck was Cyril* Thomson. He was 21 years old, the son of (Mr J. F. Thomson, Government grader at New Plymouth. He began his seafaring career on the Amokura.

ANOTHER BODY RECOVERED. DEPENDENTS OF VICTIMS. A HEAVY SEA. WELLINGTON, January 31. The body of Marlow, the cook of the Omaka, was recovered last evening on the Petone Beach. There is some doubt at present whether six or seven were on board. All those lost wero Wellington residents.

Captain Purvis leaves a widow and two children; Weekes, the . engineer, had a wife and four children; and Marlow had a wife and throe children. The Wairau’s people say the Omaka passed them when the gale sprang up, and they never saw her again. The sea was the, heaviest they had encountered, and they had an anxious time themselves.

NO FURTHER PARTICULARS.

(Peb United Press Association.)

WELLINGTON, January 31. There are no further particulars regarding the Omaka disaster. A search has been made in the, harbour for the bodies of the remainder of the ill-fated, crew. Inquests have been opened on the bodies of John T Weekes (engineer) and J. Mailon (cook). The bodies were formally identified, and the inquests adjourned.