Twelve Perish When Launch Founders in Fierce Storm

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 25, 21 April 1927, Page 9

Twelve Perish When Launch Founders in Fierce Storm

The police have established that the launch foundered on Monday evening during the fiercest storm that has swept Botany Bay for the past 50 years. The police are now of the opinion that the launch carried 12 or 13 passengers when she left Kurnell. The Bronya left Kurnell Avith two other launches for Cooks’ River, but because she was a heavier vessel, she was outdistanced by them. The theory is that she was driven ashore on the break\v r ater fringing the mouth of Cook’s River, and her occupants were throAA'n into the water

BATTERED ON BREAKWATER By Cable. — Rre&s Association. — Copyriffhi. Received 11 a.m. SYDNEY, To-day. A launch found washed ashore at Botany Bay has been identified as the Bronya, owned by a boatman named George Ansell. Nine bodies were found on the beach among the wreckage.

or upon the rocks of which the breakwater is composed. There they were practically battered into unconsciousness, judging by the appearanec of some of the bodies. Further names of those drowned are: James Charles Hamkin, of Cattai Creek; Frank Cook, of Tam worth: Herbert Francis Hopei, of Rozelle, and his wife, Daisy Hopei. Others known to be missing are: George Ansell, of Kensington, and Gordon Melville, of Ramsgate, and a man named Edwards, of Artamon, is also believed to have been one of the party.—A. and N.Z.