SAD BOATING FATALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 258, 5 November 1906, Page 5

SAD BOATING FATALITY.

FISHING- BOAT CAPSIZED IN TAAf ATCT ETVEE.

About twenty minutes past eight last night a young man, evidently very excited, drove a light gig furiously through the main street at Otahunu from the direction of Tamaki, inquiring of pedestrians if they had seen Constable Foreman. The cause of the excitement ■was soon made manifest when the constable was found. It appears that a fishing boat, manned by an Italian Jiamted Trobook and a mate named Black, was capsized when going up the river. When near Tamaici bridge the boat was pulled up alongside the bank of the river, and Bla-ck got out to examine the arch of the bridge and take general bearings. The boat was then either pushed or carried out into the stream by the current, which runs about nine miles an hour at this spot. She was carried broadside towards the bridge, the mast caught in the archway and the boat capsized. Trobook was precipitated into the stream as also -were the nets and fishing tackle. His mate called out to him to "stick to the boat." Several people were attracted to the spot by the snouts of Black, who, though unable to swim, made an attempt to go to his mate's rescue, but was prevented from doing so. A man named Joseph Premble then undressed, got into the water, and endeavoured to reach the boat. He had to abandon the -attempt, however, and return to the shore. Trobook then appears to have lost his presence of mind, and jumped into the water and commenced struggling. He cried out "Oh" three or four times, after which nothing further was seen or heard of him. When Constable Foreman arrived on the scene dragging operations were begun for the body of the missing man, but although continued up to half-past fouT o'clock this morning, the search has proved fruitless. The accident is all the more regrettable, as had Trobook stuck to the boat ; he was in little or no danger, but he appears to hay*» completely lost liis head and taken a plunge into a seething pool fully twenty feet deep. The difficulties of his would-be rescuers were further enhanced by the darkness.