DROWNING TRAGEDY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21735, 29 August 1932, Page 8

DROWNING TRAGEDY

CANVAS CANOE OVERTURNS BODY NOT YET RECOVERED (Per United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 28. When a canoe was overturned in Evans Bay by the high wind late on Saturday William Joseph Blacklidgc, aged 21, a hawker, was thrown into the water and drowned. The canoe and paddles were found late at night but the body has not yet been recovered. Blacklidge bought the canoe, a 10-foot canvas one, two days earlier. His brother, Stanley Blacklidge, aged 13, and Maurice Bennett, aged 17, had been with him during the afternoon, but remained on shore when he again went out. A strong wind was then blowing, and although it was comparatively safe near the patent slip it was dangerous farther out. Blacklidgc had ventured about 200 yards from the shore when a strong gust caught the canoe and overturned it. His brother Maurice stripped and swam out in a gallant attempt to save his brother, but he was unable to last out and was himself rescued just in time by a rope thrown from a jetty. Two men also went to the rescue and swam over the spot where the canoe overturned, but saw no sign of Blacklidge. A police patrol at 10.30 p.m. discovered the canoe and paddles washed up at the south end of the bay. The patrol continued its search all night but without avail.