SIX LIVES LOST

Taranaki Daily News, 23 August 1930, Page 9

SIX LIVES LOST

ENGLISH YACHT DISASTER RESCUE EFFORTS FRUITLESS NOTED CONSERVATIVE DIES WRECK ON CORNISH COAST British Wireless. Rugby, Aug. 21 Six lives were lost when the yacht Islander was wrecked on the coast of Cornwall in a gale last evening. The victims were Commodore H. D. King, member of Parliament for South Paddington, who had held a number of posts in the Conservative .Government, Commander Searle, of the. Royal Naval Volunteers’ Reserve, Surgeon-Captain Brailey, the medical officer on H.M.S. President, Captain Glazebrook, the skipper, and two deck hands. A gale was raging and night was falling when the yacht, which was on a holiday cruise, was driven on the rocks in Lanlivet Bay, near Polperro. The Fowey lifeboat went out, hut could not approach the vessel. A lifeline was fireel over-the yacht and two men aboard were seen desperately hanging on to the line, but it gave way in the terrific seas. A tidal wave caught the vessel and altered its position, flinging it against the rocks. One man was seen to dive from the yacht and begin to swim to shore, but he disappeared. The Fowey lifeboat strove for two hours to approach the yacht, but the heavy seas .and dangerous rocks proved too formidable. The yacht foundered and all aboard were drowned.

Commodore King was one of the most versatile men in the Conservative Party and was regarded as destined to hold a high place in some future Conservative administration. He was 53 and still young as politicians go. He had been a junior Lord of the Treasury, financial secretary to the War Office, and in the last Conservative Administration was in charge of the Mines Department. Before he entered upon his parliamentary career he took part in the defence of Antwerp, served in the Gallipoli campaign and was with the Royal Naval siege guns in Flanders.