MELANCHOLY DROWNING CASE

Patea Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 1049, 20 June 1883, Page 2

MELANCHOLY DROWNING CASE

A melancholy fatal drowning accident happened at the Hamilton railway bridge shortly before five o’clock on Friday afternoon. A party of men were engaged in the work of raising the old timber piles at the east end of the bridge, with a view of erecting new staging for the eastern span. One of the gang, a j’oung man named Tierney, was standing on the stays of the piles holding the slack of the rope used in raising the pile. The stay springing upwards, Tierney lost his balance, and, relinqishing the rope, fell into the river. The current swept him round the pile, and under a raft of floating timber, and none of his fellow workmen were able to render him any assistance. When the unfortunate man, who, by the way, was unable to swim, came to the surface, ha was some ’ distance away. Mr Marshall, the contractor, at once got into his boat, accompanied by one of his men, and pulled after the drowning man, but, when they were within a couple of strokes of him, he sank, and was not seen again. The police were communicated with, and a.A search for the body will ho doubt be secuted to-day. Tierney was a ' young man about 23 years of age, a good workman, and belonged either to Manukao or Waiuku,—“ Waikato Times."