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The Stunner Boat Accident

STATEMENT OF AN EYE- WITNESS. TfiE Lyttelton Times of Thursday says :- Mr G. Buckham, of Rangiora, who has been staying at Summer for the benefit of hia health, but returned home on Tuesday, made, yesterday, to our Rangiora correspondent and Constable Costin, the followingcircumstantial statement respecting the boat accident at Summer, which leaves no room for doubt that the four occupants of the boat have foupd a watery grave. Mr Buckham said that heand others of the household had been watching tho boat in the morning from the windows of Mr T. S. Mannering's house, which is situated opposite the tram bvidge, and by its elevation commands a wide view of the sea. He saw the boat go over the bar and sail about for a time. Just before two o'clock Mrs Buckham, her sister, Miss Torlesse, and a friend, Miss Ellis, were watching the boat from the verandah, and she was then abeut a mile off the Cave Rock, in a line between the end of the bridge and the rock. Suddenly Mrs Buckham knocked at the window of the room he was occupying, and said the boat had disappeared. She said the boat appeared to be turning round, but suddenly the sail lowered, and seemed to sink out of sight. Mr Buckham called for his spy-glasa, and although in a very weak state managed to get on to the verandah. Mrs Buckham pointed out the spot whero^she last saw the boat, and turning the spy-ghes in the direction ho distinctly saw tho poor fellows swimming. There were two in front, apparently one at each end of an oar or spar, and b»hind them there was a larger iigare which Mrs Buckham made out to be one man assisting the other. Mr Buckham immediately sent his wife and Miss Torlesse to inform Pilot Day, who waa not at home. Some time afterwards they found him near Cave rock, and Mrs Buckham told him that ahe thought an accident had occurred. He remarked that probably they had been misled by the men lowering the sail to commence fishing. He sent home for his spy-glass, however. Mr Buckham could not say whether his wife told Pilot Day that he had distinctly seen tho men swimming. After Mrs Buckham left to look up the pilot, Mr Buckham watched the men for five minutes, but his weakness and the excitement overcame him, and he had to return to the House and lie down for ten minutes. Before going in ho managed to walk to the road and looked towards the baths, in the hope that tho accident had been observed, and saw a boat was putting out. After resting for ten minutes he again looked out to sea, and saw the men still swimming. About a quarter of an hour afterwards he saw one man disappear from the end of the spar. The others trod water, as if endeavoring to attract attention, one raising hia body nearly half-way out of the water. He afterwards saw the other man disappear from the spar or oar, and shortly afterwards the two behind went out of sight. Mr Buckham was so completely exhausted by the excitement in his weak state of health that he was almost) helpless. There was a boat stuck on the bar, and the attention of thoso on the beach was seemingly taken up with her. Mr Buckham ■was sure that if a boat had put out when he first saw the accident, the whole of the men would have been saved, and the fact of his being in such a helpless state terribly distressed him. He believed it was nearly half an hour before the last man disappeared. There were two men on the Cave Rock, and he saw one pointing in the direction where he saw the men swimming, and he concluded they also had observed them, and help would be sent. The action of two men on the New Brighton Beach in running down to the water also led him to conclude that the accident had been observed, but it appeared that the men in question had their attention occupied by the boat on the bar. Mr Buckham believed that Pilot Day, on obtaining his glass, did not look in the right direction, or he could not ha<e failed to see the men. He sent for Mr Day on Mv nday, and told him what he had seen, and the former said there was very little doubt that the men had been drowned. Mr Buckham cannot understand why his statement has not ere this been made public. He did not see the papers on Tuesday, and, when his attention was drawn to the report headed, 41 Supposed Drowning," he was anxious to make the above statement.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/PBH18920923.2.17

Bibliographic details

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6479, 23 September 1892, Page 4

Word Count
800

The Stunner Boat Accident Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6479, 23 September 1892, Page 4

The Stunner Boat Accident Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XIX, Issue 6479, 23 September 1892, Page 4