CALAMITOUS BOAT ACCIDENT.

Auckland Star, Volume I, Issue 274, 25 November 1870, Page 2

CALAMITOUS BOAT ACCIDENT.

THREE MEN AND TWO BOYS

DROWNED.

To-day the painful duty devolves upon us of recording the particulars of an accident, by means of which three of our fellow-townsmen and two lads have lost their lives. On the morning of Sunday last, about 10 o'clock, a party consisting of Mr. Martin McNalty and his son John, Mr. R. B. Brenton aod his eldest son Alfred, -Mr. H. I. Yates, and Mr. Henry Holloway, left the Spit in a boat for an excursion across the inner harbour. Having landed and spent the day in one of the inlets i in the western side of the harbour, they started towards evening to return to town. They were delayed a little on the way through getting ashore on one of the mud flats, rendering i 5 necessary that they should get out to drag j the boat over, which they all did except Mr. McNalty. " in ear 7 o'clock, when a little farther from town than Mr. Beukers's Ferry Hotel, one of the boys lost his cap overboard, and Mr. Brenton, who had one of the oars, pushed it out hastily to catch the cap, and, in so doing, lost* the rowlock overboard. The tide by this time was running out fast, and the want of a rowlock rendered it impossible to keep the boat out of the current, and she rapidly drifted out to sea. In, passing Beukers's house and the wharf on the Spit, they called out loudly for assistance,' saying they had lost command of the boat. When outside, and about 30 yards from the breakers, Beukers came off to the assistance of the party, and they all got into his boat out of their own. The boat thus loaded proved to be overloaded and unmanageable; at all events, the current was too strong for any headway to be made, and she eventually drifted into the breakers and gradually filled. All on board tried to keep her afloat by baling the water out, but found it impossible ; they were then thrown into the water, and the boat turned keel uppermost. Mr. Holloway, who is a powerful swimmer, says that he swam clear of it at first, from fear of being clutched, but, as soon as he could see the position they were in, he swam back; he saw Yates struggling in the water, took him by the hair, and swam with him to the boat, telling him to'hold on by it. Mr. McNalty, at this time, had hold of the opposite gunwale. Mr. Holloway then caught hold of one of tlie boys, which of them he cannot recollect, took him to the boat, and told him to hold on. He could see nothing of the .other boy or of Mr. Brenton, but upon, coming to the boat to hold on himself, he 'saw the latter lying across it, dead, his legs hanging over one side, and his head the other. When the boat firßt turned over, he must have been caught in her and been drowned, otherwise, being an excellent swimmer, he would have made a great effort for life. The boat, shortly afterwards, revolved. Seeing the cause of this, Mr. Holloway left the boy with his hold on the gunwale, and swam round to each one, begging him to catch hold of the gunwale, but not to try to raise his body, as that was the cause of the boat turning round in the water* Neither McNalty or Yates had presence of mind to attend to this, but kept .using every effort to get up, in consequence of which every time the sea struck one of them, the boat turned again, and they were precipitated into the water. On several of these occasions, neither Yates nor McNalty would have been strong enough to get back to the boat but for the assistance given by Bukers and Holloway. The latter, after one 6f these turns, found himself getting exhausted, and was' obliged to let the . boy go —although he had kept alongside of him from the first, dragging him away from the boat when she was about to turn over—and never saw him after. McNalty aira Yates continued to hold on until about half an hour before the two survivers—Beukers and Holloway—were rescued by a boat: from the Challenger. Yates said, just before McNalty and himself were thrown into the water for the laßt time, that the next turn the boat took he should not be able to hold on longer. Almost immediately, the boat again turned, and neither was seen afterwards. Holloway swam round the boat and touched one of the two with his foot, but ■was in too weak a state to dive. Beaukers and Holloway were now the only two left-— the former holding on by the bow and the latter by the stern. Both continued to call with all their might, as, indeed, in concert with the two others^ they had been doing from the time of the accident. 'Finally, a boat from the ship Challenger picked them up and transferred them to the Harbour Master's boat which came out shortly after, and by which they were taken ashore. Both, when landed, were in a greatly exhausted state, and Beukers had sustained serious injury, having had one of his ribs broken. Mr. Holloway considered that, from the time the boat' swamped in the breakers to that of the survivors being picked up by the Challenger's boat, quite an hour and a half must have;elapsed. • ...! ; >