TRAGIC OCCURRENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 90, 22 April 1880, Page 2

TRAGIC OCCURRENCE.

A terrible affair has happened at Woosung, a few miles from Shanghai. Mr. A , 0. Owen, the second officer of the steamer Patroclus, and Dr. Yate, of the same vessel, were in a small boat, and the former was amusing himself by shooting at some birds with a revolver. The doctor was sitting just in front of him, and Mr. Owen held the weapon close to the doctor’s head. Just as he fired, the doctor turned, apparently to see what effect the shot might take. The bullet entered the doctor’s head. Mr, Owen endeavored to extract it by the help of a knife, but failing to do so, he got into a state of terrible excitement, and before the seamen in the boat could see what he was about, he fired into his own forehead. The sailors were about an hour before reaching their vessel (which was about to sail for Europe), when the captain had both the wounded men taken to the hospital at Shanghai. The doctor died the same evening, and the second officer the next day. The jury found that the doctor was accidentally killed, and that the second officer destroyed himself in a fit of temporary insanity. Dr. Yato was the son of a well-known medical practitioner at the West End of London, and the officer was also the son of a doctor. The had been great friends.