LYTTLETON.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1655, 8 June 1875, Page 3

LYTTLETON.

(Per Press Telegram Agency.) '."" Monday.

The five Men Drowned

The following are.the particulars regardingthe loss of the five men from the barque Oyrene :—The boat, a new wfialeboat 28 fejet th length and well found, left the wharf at 7.30 p.m. with six hands, all sober, four men pulling. The crew pulled *off, and when, half-way between the shore £nd the vessels a southerly buster, accompanied by torrents of raiD, caught them, the night being pitch dark. For two hours the men struggled against the gale, and finding they could not fetch their own barque they pulled towards the barque Mystery, which was" anchored off Rhodes. Bay. A line was thrown from the vessel, which the men unfortunately missed, and the boat drifted. The apprentice knowing Gollon's Bay, suggested that the boat should be headed in that direction, and it would be |beached there. The boat's head was putjto shore and pulled"towards the Bay. Travers, who was pulling the bow-oar, getting exhausted, shifted into the bow of the boat to look out for breakers and rocks ahead. In the darkness came on the sunken rocks which run out some distance near. Travers was pitched out head foremost, but he held on to the boat's painter, and three times he tried to -pull himself iinto..the. boat, but failed. The last time > the bow of the boat struck him in the chest, causing him to let go the rope. The wash of .he sea1 then carried him out to the rocks ; on recovering himself he called out for his mates, but could not get any reply from them. He made his way to Lyttelton, and reported the matter to the authorities. On Saturday i morning, Captain Rees went round the Summer Road to see if he could learn anything of the unfortunate men of tbe boat. He. saw the debris of the boat, which he recognised as his own,-and recovered some of the oars, but saw no sign of the men. The names of the men are Evap, Morris (second mate), N. P. Lareen, W. Toomey, S. Wilson, and Arthur Winck.