FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT AT TAIERI MOUTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 1819, 1 October 1886, Page 17

FATAL BOAT ACCIDENT AT TAIERI MOUTH.

{From Our Own Correspondent. ) Taikui Mouth, September 29. Quite a melancholy gloom has been cast over this district by the sad boat accident on Saturday, resulting in the drowning of four fine young men— John Russell, William Innes, Samuel Hughan, and David Ilughan. It is difficult to get reliable information about the movements of the boat. Several persons saw it leave the jett/v at 6.30 p.m., but no one *aw it cross tho bar. The Flemings, of Kuri, saw the boat, but give hazy accounts. Mr William Fleming says he s<aw the boat approach the bar and cross it, but did not notice anything unusual. After j

getting clear of tlie bar he watched the boat with a spyglass, and then saw three men in it, two rowing and one apparently steering. This was about 7 o'clock. About an hour after that the boat was getting close to the breakers in front of Fleming's house, head to wind as if anchored. Tfce boat seems to have remained there till nearly 11 o'clock Margaret iTleming, a young girl, states she saw the boat several times wijh three men in it, one sitting at the bow, and two on the same seat near the stern. Shortly before X* o'clock she saw only one man at the bow of the boat. She went into the house, and on. coming out again a short time after, the boat; had disappeared. A little bey of Fleming's found an oar on the beach near the house at about 9 o'clock, but as the men in the boat; were not seen to signal, no further notice -was taken of it. Subsequently the two broken parts of the steer oar came ashore, and later on another oar was found along the Kurt side. Nothing further was seen of the boat till it came ashore bottom up a mile or so south of the river some time in the afternoon. T" he remaining oar was found near the jetty, and one of Samuel Hughan's boots on the beach half a mile inside the bar. Piecing the evidence together it would appear that on crossing the bar among the choppy cross seas that were running at the time, a sudden jerk broke the steer oar, and threw Russell overboard. The oar had been spliced and gave way at the nails. Innes and the Hughan Bros, then made a struggle to get to some place of safety, and rowed near Fleming's, a mile north of the river. Here they waited either for the help that never came or till high water, when it would be safe to recross the bar. Probably the three young men attempted this, and had their boat filled on the bar. It; is certain the boat never turned bottom up till it was among the rocks, where it now lies shattered, else the heavy piece of iron rail used as an anchor would have brought her up. It is also quite certain that the boat was anchored near Fleming's, because she lay head to the wind all thefebime. When she came ashore the long anchor rope was still fast to her, and a body of men could not pull the anchor-end of the rope out of the sea, the piece of iron having caught among: the rocks. The boat was a first-class whaleboat nearly new, bought off the whaler Othello by Eussell and Innes about three months ago. On Saturday morning there was no sea to harm such a boat had she been well managed. Beyond a slight acquaintance with boats in the «river and a few trips to sea in a fishing boat, Kusßell knew nothing about boating, and the other men were totally unacquainted with the management of a boat. Crossing and recrossing such a bar as that of Taieri by men quite inexperienced could not but mean a disaster; but all warnings had been unheeded. It does seem strange that the very time help was needed no one watched the boat cross the bar. It was watched every other time, as so masy feared an accident almost daily. How Fleming failed to discover by the aid of the glass that something was wrong appears strange, as the boat was almost within hail from the shore ; but the three men sat still and made no signal, and no one thought of danger. Had the people on the side of the river known that an oar came ashore, it would have caused alarm, and the young men would have been rescued. It is deplorable that such fine yonng men should have perished before our eyes in open daylight without a hand having been raised to help them. A good whaleboat lay at her moorings in the river, an,d experienced men were at hand, had only an alarm been given. How it all happened, and whatever efforts the poor young men made to save themselves, must forever remain a mystery. Bussell's father was buried the previous Saturday, so the blow falls heavy on the family, and on the young wife, so early left a widow. But perhaps the heaviest blow of all falls on the Hughans, who, of their whole family of three grown-up sons, have lost two at one stroke. It is more painful that young David Hughan just came out of the hospital, and was going in the fishing boat merely to recruit his health. It is doubtful whether any of the bodies will ever be recovered, as the strong current of the ebb tide will likely carry them to sea.