A SAD TRAGEDY

Hokitika Guardian, 17 November 1928, Page 5

A SAD TRAGEDY

EVERY ABLE-BODIED .MALE LOST

(United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright).

(Received this day at 8 a.m.)

LONDON, November 16

The storm was the worst lor thirty years. Sobbing women knew nothing was left for them hut to wait until the Lido brought in the bodies. Fishermen from nearby villages tied ropes lo their waists and put on lifebelts, and whenever a body was seen ill the breakers tliov dashed in.

By 3.30 p.m. nine bodies bad been recovered. Women gathered round and a heart-broken sob showed when a husband, son. or brother had been recognised. Most of the bodies were dreadfully battered. The over-turned lifeboat was washed up on the beach a mile away. Two more bodies were found beneath it.

The hamlet oif Rye Harbour Ims now lost every able-bodied male. Every home has been bereaved. The crew included Coxswain Herbert Head, and two sons, three brothers named Cutting or Utting, three brothers named Pope, and two cousins named Downey. The lifeboat was not of a modern type, hut a stout sailing-boat liable to capsize like a ship’s lifeboat. Tlie brave women of Rye Harbour are hearing their losses with stoical calm Their saddest thought is that their men died in a gallant attempt to save a crew already rescued. leu latherless children are left in the village, including seven in one cottage. TRAGIC CONDITIONS (Received this day at 10 a.m.) LONDON, Nov. 10. Rye is a most tragic scene. The village is denuded of its menfolk, and the distracted women hardly realise the force of the catastrophe. One young wife to-day wandered hat less in the wind and rain swept beach. She saw a group weeping and asked what they were crying for. She remarked : “Mv husband is late home, but I have the dinner in the oven.” Her friends led her gently homeward. Subscriptions are already coming in from all over the country. On Monday the thirteen bodies recovered will ho buried in a single grave.

STEAMER ASHORE. (Received this dnv at 10 a.m.) BERLIN. Nov. 16. The German steamer Smyrna which collided and sank the steamer Alice and picked up the latter’s survivors (needlessly going to the succour of which the Rye lifeboat men perished) is now ashore herself off Flissingen with the Alice’s crew aboard. A fierce gale prevents the salvagers approach.