BOATING DISASTERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2840, 19 August 1908, Page 93

BOATING DISASTERS.

Of these there are always a number every year in the western districts of Scotland, where boating facilities are so ample, and yet where boating dangers are so great, owing to the fierce gusts of wind, which sweep down from the mountains. Already this season is being marked by sad fatalities. Four young men, the sons of wealthy gentlemen in Sheffield, London, and Glasgow, and who were apprentice engineers in the shipyard of Messrs John Brown and Co., Clydebank, were drowned on the night of May 24, while boating on Loch Lomond, the weather being wild at the time. Their boat was found next morning on the shore, two miles and a-half from Balloch. Three of the bodies were recovered some days later. The young men at the time of the accident were returning from Balloch to their camp on Ton-inch Island. They are said to have been skilled in the use" of a boat, and they were"in the habit of spending their weak-ends on Loch Lomond. On the day preceding this occurrence a sailing boat, while crossing from Gourock to Strone Point, capsi&ed within sight of many spectators on the northern shore. They were powerless to help, but a passing steamer launched a boat and succeeded in rescuing one of the party. Prom him they learned that it had been composed of three others besides himself. As the boat was shipping water, one of them left the tiller to help in reefing the sail, when he was knocked overboard by a squall which threw the boat over on 'her beam ends, and soon after she filled and sank. She came up again, however, and the survivor swam to her and clung to. the wreckage until he was rescued. Anyone who has seen sailing boats, as I often have, crossing the Firth at this point, exposed to the often opposing influences of a strono- tide and sudden and furious blasts of >; icd, must wonder that similar accidents are not more numerous. The men who were drowned all belonged to Gourock. Their names were:— J. M'Millan (Osborne House), T. Burrows, and his nephew Anthony Ayrton. The rescued man was a draughtsman from Paisley, named PattiSOQ.

SUICIDE OF A SOLICITOR. George Rae Cowie, a solicitor, and treasurer of the burgh of Inverurie,' was, found dead in bed in an hotel in Leith street. Edinburgh, where he had been staying for a fortnight. Most of that time he had spent in driving about in a motor car with lady friends. As he did "not respond to repeated calls the door of his room was forced, and he was found as stated, with an empty bottle and tumbler, both of which had contained laudanum, beside him. An unfinished will, written in-~ pencil, was abo found in the room. Cowie, who was only 36 years of age, was a native of Banffshire, and after serving his time in the law office of Provost George, Macduff, started in business in Aberdeen with Mr W. E. Bell, solicitor. The partnership was subsequently dissolved, and Cowie went to South Africa for a time. On returning he settled in Inverurie, where he became most popular, and, as his ability was exceptional, he quickly acquired a good business. He got into the Town Council, and became treasurer, was prominent as a Liberal politician, and held office in various societies in Inverurie. He was also for a time secretary of the Aberdeenshire Cricket Club. His unexpected and mysterious death caused a great sensation \ in Inverurie and the surrounding district.