FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6049, 4 October 1887, Page 2

FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT

The Botany Bay Disaster. [FROM OTJB OWN CORRESPONDENT.] (Per s.s. Waihora, at the Bluff.) NEW SOUTH WALES. INVERCARGILL, Oct. 3. A fatal boat accident, resulting in the loss of four lives, lately occurred in Botany Bay. A party consisting of five artillery* men and three civilians left Madringham in an open sailing boat. When about two miles off the land the craft capsized. All the occupants managed to cling to the upturned boat for a considerable time. Within an hour or so of the accident one of the party, named Whitehead, a schoolmaster at Botany, started off with one of the" paddles and the rudder to reach the shore. As far as could be seen by those who were left clinging to the boat, he got on all right, and, encouraged by his success, one of the artillerymen left the boat, and struck out for the land. He had not proceeded far, however, when he was heard to cry for help, and immediately after all was quiet. The other men, who were almost exhausted and numbed with cold, continued to hang on to the boat for another hour or two, when two of them, unable to bear the strain any longer, dropped off and were drowned. The four men left kept together until about midnight, when, . by some extraordinary means, the boat was righted. They scrambled into her, and by careful management gradually worked hee to the shore at Lady Robinson's Beach, which was reached between two and three o'clock nert morning. The two artillery* men saved were Thos..Brennan and Chas. Becamer, and the two civilians who reached the shore with them were William Forbes, of Redfern, and Fred. Chambers, a lad of sixteen, also of Redfern. Those who were drowned were P.Leslie, David Crathan, and Frank Barber, artilleryman, and John Whitehead, public school teacher at Botany, who leaves a wife and three children. It appears the artillerymen were going out for a sail, when the other men ! asked for a lift over to Botany and were allowed to join the party.