YACHT WRECKED ON UNCHARTED ROCK

Taranaki Daily News, 8 September 1934, Page 15 (Supplement)

YACHT WRECKED ON UNCHARTED ROCK

Year Old Mystery Solved By British Admiralty UNKNOWN DANGERS AROUND ' THE COAST rjNE of the most puzzling sea mysM teries of recent years was solved with the discovery by the British Admiralty of an uncharted rock in Killary Bay, County Galway. It was here that Lord Moyne s yacht, the Roussalka, a vessel of 1447 tons, sank last August seven minutes after striking the rock, although observations at the time showed that the ship was a mile west of any known danger point. “It is a remarkable example of the fact,” said Lord Moyne after the Admiralty’s discovery “that even m the most carefully charted waters around our coast unknown dangers are still sometimes to be found. The uncharted rock, according to an Admiralty notice to mariners just issued, is at a depth of two fathoms. Lord Moyne, in a statement about the wreck of his yacht, said: “On the evidence supplied by Captain Laidlaw, of the Roussalka, the Admiralty sent the survey ship Beaufort to examine the spot and the uncharted rock was discovered near an anchorage much frequented in former times by the British Navy. “Local inhabitants assumed that the Roussalka had struck the Blodslake Rocks, but the yacht was a mile to the west.” ' Lord Moyne, two or three guests and a crew of six officers and 26 men were saved and were able to land in the yacht’s own boats. Before they left her, however, they were splashing through deep water which had risen over the deck. Lord Moyne was formerly Mr Walter Guinness, M.P., for Bury St. Edmunds. He was Minister of Agriculture from 1925 to 1929.