THE FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.

Evening Star, Issue 3512, 26 May 1874, Page 2

THE FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT.

The particulars of the above sad affair that we have been able to procure are to the following effect: -Ik appears that shortly be'oto noon yesterday four men, employed as tailors at Brown, Ewing, and Co.’s establishment, left Dunedin in a sailing boat, with three sailors accompanying them, to see the regatta at Port Chalmers. The names of the tailors were Prank Cassells, aged 39'; Andrew bkene, aged 21 (within a few days); Prank Buttei field, aged 24; and William Lenton, aged 17. The two first mentioned were married, but had no families; Butterfield nad, we believe) no relations in the Colony ; but Lenton’a father is employed as packer at Messrs Mathieson and Co.’s, and his, brother is a school teacher. These four were all drowned, biit the three seamen —named Stronghold, Davis, and Gottfried—escaped with their lives. All the seven in the boat were recent arrivals; we understand, the seamen having come out here in the same ship as some of the unfortunate, victims of the catastrophe. Before leaving the jetty the party were warned by some of their acquaintances against going, in the face of such boisterous weather a strong, gusty wind blowing from the south-west—but without avail. The boat was the property of the four tailors, they having recently purchased it. From the statements of one of the survivors it appears that all went well until the boat reached the cross channel, and opposite Curie’s'Point. Here the gale getting a good deal fiercer the mainsail was being taken in, and it flapping a good deal; the man who was stowing it asked another of the party to assist him—when, three or four oc them rose to dost), causing the boat to capsize, and throw them all into the water. A s the boat rose they all took hold of her, but there being four on one aide and three tux tho other she was-'again capsized, they all letting go their hold of her. Inree of them then sank and were seen no more. The three sailors, however, managed B e k kold °f the. boat again, and Gottfried, was a good swimmer, struck out for the shore, which he reached in safety, and called upon the others to follow him. Skene endeavored to do so, but his strength failed him when close to the shore, and he was seen by those on the boat to throw up his hands and suddenly disappear. btronghold and Davis remained upon the boat, expecting to follow the fata of their comrades, and saw a dead bodv floating past them, but they were too exhausted to attempt to arrest its progress Fortunately for them, a boat put off lo their assistance, manned by an Englishman named Hoskins and a Chinaman, who rescued them; the boat drifting down the stream. It was afterwards picked up below the islands and moored near innis’s fishery. Mrs Skene and the wife of one of the sailors had preferred to go to the Port by rail pri account of the bad weather; and the ,sad r intelligence reached them-there. With reference to the statements in a contemporary, as to the cause of. the accident, we are authorized to state, by intimate friends of the deceased, that they, were all steady, sober men—Skene and Butterfield being Good Templars. Other acquaintances, who saw them start from Dunedin, affirm that all those in the boat were perfectly S j- i• wo castables were sent from Dunedm this morning to assist in searching for the bodies, but with no result at the time we went to press. ■;