YACHTING TRAGEDY IN OTAGO HARBOUR.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3870, 13 November 1928, Page 3

YACHTING TRAGEDY IN OTAGO HARBOUR.

FIVE PEOPLE DROWNED. FERRY STEAMER ABLE TO RESCUE ONLY ONE. DETAILS MEAGRE. Dunedin, Nov. 12. A very distressing accident occurred in Lower Harbour this afternoon, when a yacht, carrying six passengers, capsized off the southern side of Quarantine Island. The accident was first noticed when the ferry steamer Waiareka, which was running between the Island and Dunedin, rounded the point coming into the channel. The yacht appeared to he a 16-footer and when first seen, there were three men hanging to it and another was observed about 60 feet away. The last-named, however, disappeared before help could be sent. The water was very rough but a bandsman jumped off the steamer and tried to rescue one of the men hanging to the yacht and held him up for some time but lie finally went iwa. ' Reports of the accident are very meagre but it is known that one man was rescued, whose name is thought to be Victor Duell and one other was brought back in the ferry dead, despite continued (attempts to revive him by artificial respiration. The captain of the Waiareka did everything it was possible but no other bodies could be recovered. The accident is one of the worst that has ever occurred on the Otago Harbour. Details of the tragedy are as yet vague, as the police party investigating lias not yet returned.