OVERTURNED DINGHY

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31079, 7 June 1966, Page 1

OVERTURNED DINGHY

Man Rescued, Man Drowned •■The Press" Special Service AUCKLAND, June 6. Weakened and nearly drowning, a man was found floating in the Tamaki Estuary near his upturned dinghy late last night.

A man missing, believed drowned, is thought to have been thrown into the water when his 12ft dinghy overturned while the anchor was being raised. He was:

As he was carried to safety by local people who heard his cries for help, he murmured: “There’s someone out there.”

Bruce Bateman, married, a foreman, of 3 Huxley place, Glen Innes.

A search has failed to find him.

The man rescued is Gordon D. McKenzie, landscape contractor, married, of 22 Lewis road, Pakuranga. His shouts for help were heard about 9.45 p.m. by Mr and Mrs D. Eustace, who were watching television in their home at Karaka Bay. “We went outside on the porch and heard one or two more cries—then silence," said Mrs Eustace. “Away in the distance we saw a light bobbing up and down. It looked like a torch held by someone in the water.”

They called their neighbours and raced down to the beach. Mr and Mrs Eustace, in a 12-foot dinghy, and Mr

L. Macky, in his seven-foot dinghy, rowed out through the waves toward the light. Several hundred yards off shore, Mr Macky heard faint cries for help. In the water, only just afloat and barely conscious, he found Mr McKenzie.

Mr Macky tried to pull Mr McKenzie into the dinghy, but he clung like a leech to the side and could not be moved. Mr Macky finally lashed him to the boat and rowed back to shore. Neighbours who had gathered at the l>each carried Mr McKenzie to the home of Mr J. McCrystal, in Riddell road. All the time he kept murmuring: “There's someone out there—there's someone out there " While an ambulance took Mr McKenzie to Green Lane Hospital the local people went out to look again.

They found only a tiny white dinghy floating upside down. It was brought back to shore where the clamps of an outboard motor broken off short could be seen.

By 12.30 police and civilians had mounted a search on foot of most of the coastline from Ladies Bay to the Glendowie sand-spit. A Coast guard launch and the police launch. Deodar, were scouring the sea with searchlights.