A DREDGE BREAKS AWAY.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 31 October 1901, Page 3

A DREDGE BREAKS AWAY.

(PBB PRESS ASSOCIATION).

Dunedin, October 30

’ The Sixteen Mile Beach dredge has been stranded on an island one mile below Eoxburgh. The pontoons are broken up and the engine is just visible from the shore.

The particulars to hand regarding the disaster to the Sixteen Mile Beach dredge are conflicting. There was a caretaker on board for the Company, also a young man named James Austin, who was looking after the interests of the Dunedin Engineering Company. The dredge sunk or broke away last night at eleven o’clock. One of the pontoons after travelling through Alexandra, and the Eoxburgh gorge was stranded about a mile below Eoxburgh. The machinery had been swept off by the current, which must have been very strong, as the river was 15 feet above its normal mark. It was reported that Austin, who was on board, had been drowned.

By a late special to the Otago Daily Times to-night it says that the caretaker alleges that Austin was not drowned. The Company had just made financial arrangements with the contractors and others by mortgaging the dredge and was waiting deeds being registered. The original subscribed capital was £6,500, since which 1,780 preference shares have been issued. All that is left to represent this is the claim. There is no marine insurance on the dredge.