FISHERMAN DROWNED AFTER TRAWLER FOUNDERS ON ROCK

Wanganui Chronicle, 22 December 1949, Page 6

FISHERMAN DROWNED AFTER TRAWLER FOUNDERS ON ROCK

CHRISTCHURCH, Last Night (PA). —When swimming on a fish crate behind his mate from the trawler Konene, which foundered after striking the cliff and a rock at Scenery Nook in Squally Bay, a mile and a-quarter west of Akaroa Heads about 5 a.m. today, Desmond Clifford Hammond, a married man with a family, of Corsair Bay, disappeared in a heavy swell.

The master oi the trawler, Mr. George Smart, of Simeon Quay, Lyttelton, reached the foot of the cliff exhausted and took nearly five hours to reach a homestead over rugged country. When the search for Hammond’s body was suspended this afternoon, the trawler was ying on a rock 100 yards from the shore with the tip of one of its masts above the water of the rising tide. The search will be continued tomorrow and salvage efforts made on the trawler Konene, which is valued at £5OOO, was not insured.

The Konene left Akaroa Wharf about 3.30 a.m. for the fishing grounds. Smart and Hammond had been mates on the trawler for the past three years, fishing out of Lyttelton and Akaroa. Following custom, one went beuw to sleep during the trip out of akaroa Harbour. Hammond was at the wheel and Smart was below. A crash wakened Smart in the forward cabin and he rushed on deck to find the Konene right under the precipitous cliff of Scenery Nook, a small inlet immediately east of Squally Bay and west of Timutimu Head, the west head at the entrance to Akaroa Harbour. The engine was reversed to. back the trawler clear of the cliff. Smart then noticed the damage. One of the masts had broken off against the cliff and the sea was pouring into the trawler from an under-water holing on the rock. Four minutes after striking, the Konene sank about 100 yards off the cliff base.

Smart and Hammond dived into the sea, grabbed a fish, crate apiece, and swam towards the cliff. Tne sea was rough after several days of boisterous weather and the kelp was thick. Smart apparently was the better swimmer and was soon ahead of Hammond. He did not see his mate, but they were talking. They were about 35 yards off the rocks when Smart looked round and saw that only the packing case to which Hammond had been clinging was visible. On reaching the foot of the 300-feet cliff, Smart was exhausted. He looked again for Hammond but saw no sign of him. To reach a ravine leading up to the boundary of Lands End sheep station owned by Mr. R. A. Mould, Smart had to make a series of short swims thiough the swell and leapt from one rocky beach to another The only outlet from the foot of the sheer cliff was by the very rugged ravine. Already exhaust ed and shocked, Smart made hjs way uphill to open country and then walked a mile and a-half to the home of Mr. R. Priest, manager of Lands End. “He was almost knocked when he reached the house,” said Mr. Priest. “L was away at the time and Mrs. Priest helped him inside. He could not speak and she had to bring him round to find out who he was and what had happened. When he told her, she telephoned the police at Akaroa.'’ It was not till after 2 o’clock that Smart reached Akaroa in a doctor’s car. He was suffering from shock and exhaustion and was put to bed at the Bruce Hotel. He recovered sufficiently to be taken to his home at Lyttelton in the evening.

On receiving a telephone message from Mrs. Priest, Constable M. Egan organised a search. Fishing boats in Akaroa put out to Scenery Nook and trawlers on the fishing grounds off Akaroa Heads were called in to give assistance by the radio telephone station at Lyttlton, the operator being Mrs. R. Cormack, whose husband was at Akaroa with his trawler on the slipway. From a trawler owned by Mr. R. Davis, of Akaroa, Constable Egan supervised the search for Hammond’s body. A dinghy was used to get close in shore; it was risky work with the heavy swell and operations were suspended when the swell became dangerous.