LYTTELTON TRAWLER SINKS RAPIDLY AFTER STRIKING ROCK

Wanganui Chronicle, 11 March 1948, Page 5

LYTTELTON TRAWLER SINKS RAPIDLY AFTER STRIKING ROCK

(P.A.) Christchurch, March 10. The Lyttelton steam trawler, Cowan struck Port Levy Rock at about 9.30 last evening, filled rapidly and sank. The master, Captain George Mouncer, and a crew of seven were all rescued. The Cowan, a vessel of 67 tons gross, was returning to Lyttglton from the fishing grounds. Captain Mouncer said the Cowan was nearing the Port Levy Rock when the signalman at Adderley Head called him by Morse lamp asking for the name of the vessel, which was given. About a minute later the Cowan struck. Captain Mouncer at once called Adderley Head, but the water reached the dynamo and all lights failed. The engine was still working, so he turned the vessel with the inten/on of beaching her in Starvation Bay. “Some of the men were clearing away the lifeboat,” said Captain Mouncer, “but the ship suddenly heeled over and uank. There were three men in the boat, but the rest of us were in the water, with the exception of W. Willman, junior, who had jumped on to the rock. When we struck I was dragged down with the ship, but got clear. I thought I would never come up. When I reached the surface I saw the boat rowing round and the men in the water were calling to each other. We were all picked up and beached the boat in Starvation Bay.” Captain Mouncer and three men then rowed to Little Port Cooper, where the Harbour Board signalmen live, picking up Willman, junior, from the rock on the way. They arrived about midnight and telephoned to Lyttelton for a launch. The launch left Lyttelton at 12.00 a.m., went to Little Port Cooper and picked up Captain Mouncer and four men and took the lifeboat in tow. The launch then went to Starvation Bay—a small inlet with towering cliffs on three sides, which made the darkness still darker. On a tiny shingle beach the three men left there had lit a big fire. Guided by this the lifeboat went in and brought the men out to the launch, which then returned to Lyttelton. arriving at 3.5 a.m. W. Willman, senior, trawling master of the Cowan, was aboard the fishing launch Dolphin which early in the war was sunk by mistake by a shot tired from the gun at Battery Point in Lyttelton Harbour. At low tide today there was no sign of the Cowan. The possibilities of salvage are being considered. A preliminary inquiry into the loss of the Cowan will be held by Captain G. P. Evans, Government Marine Superintendent at Lyttelton, who will report to the Marine Department in Wellington.