SIX DROWNED

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20670, 8 March 1937, Page 9

SIX DROWNED

LAUNCH WRECKED AT SYDNEY HEADS TRAGIC END OF FISHING PARTY United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph- Copyrteht (Received March 8, 12.5 a.m.) SYDNEY. March 7. Six men were drowned and three others were saved only after most desperate efforts by rescuers, when a 32-foot launch, the Voyager, was washed ashore at the foot of the cliffs between North Head and Blue Fish Point this afternoon. The Voyager had taken a party to a fishing ground, 20 miles north of Sydney, but a high wind and rising sea forced them to turn back towards the harbour. When nearing Sydney Heads, the engine failed and th : launch was soon at the mercy of the waves. Of the three men saved, two were thrown on to the rocks by the sea and subsequently had to be brought 400 feet up a sheer cliff face, and the third man clung to a piece of planking for nearly four hours, until he was picked up by life-savers. Gallant Rescue Efforts In spite of the tremendous seas, a boat was lowered from the pilot steamer Captain Cook and a member of the crew risked his life ir swimming with a reps to the Voyager. One rescue party, in trying to reach the two men who were thrown on the rocks, was trapped for several hours by the rising tide and the force of the seas. The Voyager’s last anchor had given away when the seaman from the Captain Cook got a line aboard. He then returned to the pilot steamer but immediately strain was put on the line it parted. An attempt to get another line aboard by means of rockets failed. One man from the launch tried to swim ashore with a line, but he was unable to climb a ledge of rock and he disappeared. Apparently after the launch struck the rocks, all but three men were drowned at once It is believed that some were trapped in the cabin as the launch capsized.