Liferaft Washed Ashore

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31079, 7 June 1966, Page 14

Liferaft Washed Ashore

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, June 6. What appears to be part of the missing liferaft from the wrecked Kaitawa was found late today on Ninety Mile Beach. The rubber outer ring of a liferaft was recovered by the police late this afternoon. The ring, which measured about 12 feet by six feet and had ropes and tape attached, was discovered by Mr W. J. Culley, of Awanui.

It was wrapped in kelp and

resembled a log lying on the beach. The bottom of the liferaft is missing and a gash in the ring has allowed it to deflate. Mr Culley and his wife found the raft when he was returning down the beach after spending the week-end shooting. “It looked like a big log

rolled in kelp," he said. “1 turned around and went back. The life-raft and kelp bad formed a log three feet in diameter and eight feet long. “We cut all the kelp away and spread it out It was just the outside wall. It looked as if the cement joining the floor had come undone.”

Other wreckage had been washed up with the kelp after a storm last night, Mr Culley said.

The piece of raft was being held at the Kaitaia police station tonight for identification. Captain R. S. Carter, of the Union Steam Ship Company in Auckland, had been helping police identify wreckage but returned to Auckland on Sunday. He said tonight that the find could be the wreckage of the missing life-raft, but until close examination had been made identification was impossible.