HARBOUR TRAGEDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 300, 18 December 1937, Page 8

HARBOUR TRAGEDY

DROWNING AT AUCKLAND SEAMAN FROM U.S.S. VESSEL I Per Ureas Association. ] AUCKLAND, Dec. 17. In ful view of crowds on the waterfront enjoying the midday sun, a dack-hand off the Union Company's steamer Waimarino was drowned about 50 yards off the launch steps a few minutes before 2 o’clock this afternoon. The victim was John McCormick, aged 37, who had been with the ship about two months. McCormick had friends living in Wellington, but it is not yet known whether he was married. The Waimarino, which berthed on the eastern side of the Prince s Wharf, was loading sugar for the South from two lighters when the tragedy occurred. McCormick, clad only in a pair of shorts, was seen to dive in from a lighter and strike out for the launch steps, about 100 yards away. Onlookers noticed that he appeared to be very awkward in the water and a few minutes later he was seen to be oating face downwards with his arms stretched out in front of him. Three young men from Blockhouse Bay, R. Jameson, W. H. Clendon and R. B. Thompson, were watching McCormick when they noticed he appeared to be in difficulties. Jameson, who is an indifferent swimmer, dived in from the launch steps fully clothed and made for the seaman about 50 yards off. At the same time a Tongan watersider, Leatuu Prescott, dived in from a lighter. Both swimmers were within a few yards of McCormick when he sank below the surface. Two other watersiders working on the Tui, J. McCarthy and Cyril Pearce, well known as a wrestling referee, also swam to the spot but no trace could be found of the body.

The crowd of between two and three hundred people was clustered about the railing watching the rescue efforts. Dragging operations were continued throughout the remainder of the afternoon but without success.