FOUNDERING OF A CUTTER. TWO LIVES LOST.

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 11994, 22 July 1907, Page 4

FOUNDERING OF A CUTTER. TWO LIVES LOST.

The cutter Flora, owned by Mr J. J. Craig, and engaged in conveying shingle from Waiheke to Auckland, sank on the Sandspit at Devonport this morning at about three o'clock. Constable Benry and night watchman Hamilton heard shrieks coming from the harbor. It was blowing a hard north-easfcery gale at the time, with fierce squals. The sea was so beavy that it was impossible to launch a boat to go to the assistance of those in distress. The cries continued till 3.35, when they suddenly ceased. An hour lator the steamer Ruru came over from Aukland, ancl steamed in the direction whence the cries had come, and found the topmast of the Flora above water, but there was no sign of the crew, who had been washed a way. when the cutter sank. The vessel went down in over 20 feet of water, when, had she been 100 yards further in she should have grounded with her deck above water, and the crew would have been perfectly safe. July 21. Nothing further has transpired concerning the wreck of the cutter Flora, at Devonport early yesterday morning, by which Richard Sullivan (the skipper), and Thomas Clark (a seaman) lost their lives. So far as can be ascertained only these two men were on the cutter.