UNLAWFUL OCCASION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21772, 11 October 1932, Page 6

UNLAWFUL OCCASION

STORY OF STOLEN YACHT IN AND OUT OF DUTCH PRISON, Two men who sailed from Whitstable to Holland without a compass, who spent 15 days in a Dutch prison, described their adventures in statement;s read at Canterbury County Police Court. The men were Johannes De Wit, 44, a South African seaman, and Edgar Lake, 32, a miner and a native of Plymouth. They were charged with being concerned together in stealing the yacht Lapwing, valued at £IOO, the property of Ernest Arthur Russell, of Seasalter, Whitstable. In his statement De Wit told how, in company with Lake, he boarded the Lapwing and wont to sleep. In the morning the boat was afloat, and he slipped the moorings and set sail. They sighted the Dutch coast two days later and ran ashore. They were given food by a Dutch farmer, and put to sea again, and lost sight of the coast until the following Tuesday morning. “ There was a gale blowing and a fearful sea running. A Dutch steamer came to our assistance. Then we crossed the bar, where I let go the anchor. I was exhausted with cold ami hunger and could go no further.' They took us. to the Mayor, who gave us food and" he arrested us for having no passports. “Wo were in prison 15 days, and then the Governor came In and said: i ‘The prison door is open. You can go where you like.’ Wo walked down the town and were arrested and taken to the police station the next morning. They took us to Roscndaal by train and handed us over to the police station. They kept us till 8 o'clock, and two police on cycles marched us along a big main road for five miles, and then "to, a small post, and said: ‘Look,_ Belgium! Get out. If you come back,’ we shoot you.' We walked all night and arrived at Antwerp at'l2 o’clock the next day. We told the Consul-General, who put us up at the Sailors’ Home and fiehtim back to England.” •’ ; ; The reason why he took the yacht was that he was a seaman, and could not get a ship in England. He thought he might get a ship in Holland. ■ ‘ “• • ■ - ;1 Lake, in evidence, said that once they were afloat he was an unwilling partner in the adventure and the case against him was dismissed.

A long list of previous convictions against De Wit included one of three years for robbery-under-arms in New South Wales. He was sentenced to six months'-hard labour. : !