WOMAN AND CHILD DROWNED.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 198, 3 March 1877, Page 2

WOMAN AND CHILD DROWNED.

The hulk 1 Eli Whitney ’ which was run into in Wellington Harbour, on Friday night, the 23rd nit., hy the s.s, ‘ Tango,’ shortly after midnight, was muter the charge of Mr Edwin Davey, who, vvith his wife Amy and his infant son Alfred Earnest (p months old), lived on board. The following is the survivor’s narrative as published in the Post -. After referring to the Inrions nature ot the storm which had been raging since the previous night, ho goes on to relate ho was first aroused to the imminent pwil of the hour by his wile having made the appalling discovery that no safety was to he looked for hy the boat which was moored at the stern of the hulk, Inc doomed vessel was already awns!!, and in a second or two line unfed made shipwrecked people wore drifting 1 to leeward over the dark and storudosied hay, with only a plank for a support. When the foundering vessel left them struggling helplessly, the husband had succeeded in securing a plank and hauling Ins wile on to it, but in a very lew minutes it capsized. Throwing them into the water. He recovered (he plank at last, and thou managed to seine Ids wife, by the heir ;,ud drag; her on to it again, hut in ihe shock of the immersion she had dropp 'd the child, and ’.bey never saw it eg.dm lie ami his who succeeded in reaching the soiilh.:ru shore oi the bay sai'elv, ait hough much exhausted—the plank several limes capsizing by the way. With great difficulty he scrambled ashore, leaving Ids wife iu safety by Mccch’s floating stage —aground at the time—and went to the nearest house to get help, but overcome by exhaustion, he fainted, and for nearly an hour was unable to explain what he wanted. The rest of the circumstances arc detailed above. Sir .'Davey asserts positively that the Eli Whitney's light was burning when he went to bed.. He, also states that he felt no particular shock, the. acuteness uf his perceptions probably having been deadened by the. motion and noise oi the vessel in {lieviolent storm raging. He had been married only about eighteen months.