BOAT ACIDENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 269, 30 October 1862, Page 5

BOAT ACIDENT

WAIKOUAITI.

MA ST BROWNED. We have received information of a sad accident at Waikouaiti, by which a sailor belonging to the ketch Challenge lost his life. The particulars ot the accident are as follows :— On the morning of Friday, the 24th inst., Mr Chapman, storeman to Mr Jones, and three sailors belonging to the ketch Challenge, put off in a boat from'the Sandspit, Waikouaiti, with the purpose of landing on the | beach, near Mount Cornish. Upon nearing the shore a heavy sea broke outside them, and while they were endeavouring to hack the boat into smooth water, she came, by some mismanagement, broadside on to the breakers, :n<l was at once capsized. The master of the Challenge, having witnessed the accident -Vom the beach, sent a message to the Sand-s-)it for assistance. Police Constable Britton, who was on duty at that place, at once started for the scene of the accident in a whale-boat, ■ accompanied by four watermen and two other | persons. The day was calm, but there was a heavy ground swell, and the waves . were breaking with considerable violence on the shore. Hardly had the whale-boat got amongst the surf when she also was capsized, and the crew had the utmost difficulty in isaving themselves; indeed, but lor the gallantry of one of the party, a man named John | Davis, and a Maori Avho came to his assist- | ance, the constable would have been drowned, he being unable to swim. The names of theothers who made up the crew of the whaleboat were William Harper. Thomas Pennioll, | William Dale, Alexander Taylor, John M'lu- ! tosh, and Duncan M'JSTaughton. Upon hearing of the accident, Sergeant Percy, of the Waikouaiti Station, accompanied by Mounted-constable Harrold, went immediately to the beach, and found that one of the two sailors of the v Challenge" was missing and was supposed to be drowned. They kept watch along the shore until dark, searching for the body, but it was not until the following morning that the body was found b}' the police among the rocks close to Mount Cornish, where it had been left by the receding tide. The name of the deceased was John Shepherd.