CANOE CAPSIZES.

Wairarapa Age, 29 August 1932, Page 5

CANOE CAPSIZES.

YOUNG MAN DROWNED IN EVANS BAY. ATTEMPTS AT RESCUE FAIL. WELLINGTON, August 28. When a canoe overturned in Evans Bay by the high, wind late on Saturday, William Joseph Blacklidge 21, a hawker, was thrown into the water and drowned. The canoe and paddles were Yound late at night but the body has not yet been recovered. Blacklidge bought the canoe, a 16-foot canvas one, two days earlier. His brothers Stanley Blacklidge, 13, and Maurice Bennett, aged 17, had been with him during the afternoon but remained on shore when the eldest boy went 'out. A strong wind was blowing. Although it was comparatively safe near the Patent Slip it was dangerous further out. Blacklidge ventured about POO yards from the shore. A strong gust caught the canoe, which overturned. His brother Maurice stripped and dived to the rescue in a gallant attempt, but he was unable to last out and himself was rescued just in time by a rope thrown from a jetty. Two men also went to the rescue and swam over the spot where the canoe overturned but saw no sign of Blacklidge. A police patrol at 10.30 p.m. discovered the canoe and paddles washed up at the south end of the bay. The patrol continued its operations all night and throughout to-day unavailing.— (P-A)