A CAPTAIN' WASHED OVERBOARD.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2300, 31 July 1880, Page 2

A CAPTAIN' WASHED OVERBOARD.

Sergeant llullcdge, stationed at the Bluff, on Tuesday, forwarded to Inspector Fox a report respecting the loss of the master of the schooner Annie Hill (Gr. M‘Kay) on the 23rd, on her voyage from Grcymouth to the Bluff. The lirst mate, John Metcalfe, states that on Friday morning (33rd), a strong wind was blowing and a heavy sea run” ning. The vessel was running before the wind. About 10 p.m. himself, two of the crew, and the cook were below. It was the captain’s watch, and he and two of the crew were on deck. Metcalfe felt the vessel struck by a heavy sea, and immediately afterwards John Cook, the man at the wheel, cried “The captain is overboard." He instantly went on tleck, and found that the top of the skylight over tiie cabin was washed away, and that there was about 4ft. of

water in the cabin. Ho could not sec or hear the captain. The sea was so rough that nearly half an hour had elapsed before the craft was hove to. The top of the skylight, the mate thinks, must have struck the captain when being washed overboard, and thus caused him to sink at once. A boat was not lowered, as the sea was too high, and the mate avers

that no boat could have lived in it. The fatality occurred about 100 miles from Cape Province, Deceased was a native of Campbclltown, Highlands of Scotland, was 37 years of age and unmarried. He has left a brother, a publican in Glasgow, but no relatives in the colony. He usually made his home in Dunedin, and the mate believes that he lodged £IOO in the Union Bank of Australia in the city. John Cook corroborates the above statement, and adds that he was almost a minute under water, and that if he had let go the wheel the vessel would probably have been lost with all hands.