RESCUED AT SEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 291, 29 February 1928, Page 1

RESCUED AT SEA

FISHERMEN ADRIFT PICKED UP BY NIAGARA LAUNCH HALF-SWAMPED Yy’TTH their launch in Imminent danger of sinking, while broken down and drifting rapidly from the land, the three men. comprising the crew of the fishing launch Ika were picked up by the R.M.S. Niagara at about nine o’clock last evening. The rescued men are Mr. J. Buchan, ; married, of 5a Union Street, Auckland; Mr. Norman Blackburn, married, of Matamata; and Mr. Cyril Ledger, j single, of 13 Walters' Road. Auckland. The launch was discovered by the | Niagara 15 miles off the land and 10 : miles north of Whangarei Heads. The 1 wire received by the collector of customs stated that the launch had broken down off Tiritiri Island, and had been driven by the strong southerly winds to the north-east of Maro Tiri Island, being forced all the time further from the land. It is estimated that the launch drifted in all about 50 miles. LAUNCH ABANDONED

When the men were rescued the launch was left to drift, and it was expected that, in its half-swamped condition, it would not be long before the vessel would sink. As a precautionary measure, however, the following message was broadcast by the Niagara at 9.41 last evening:—“Fishing launch Ika drifting. Position at 8.30 p.m.. latitude 35deg 44min south, 174 deg 51min east, 2G2deg. 10 miles from Maro Tiri. Will probably drift about a mile an hour. Dangerous to navigation.” The three men left Auckland about one o clock on Saturday morning, intending to fish in the neighbourhood of Tiritiri. They originally intended leaving on the preceding evening, but in deference to an old superstition, which has not repaid him for his trust, Mr. Buchan, declined to leave on a Friday. Mr. Buchan has been 16 years engaged in fishing on the Waitemata, but. has only owned the Ika since Christmas, when, on being bought from Mr. Peter Smith, it was refitted in an unusually luxurious manner for a fishing craft, and is said to have been the best appointed boat of its class on the harbour. As the Ika was registered under the Fisheries Act her crew are entitled to recognition as shipwrecked mariners, and will be brought buck to Auckland by the first possible boat. The Ika was a 35-foot launch of about five tons burthen. It was fitted with a 15 horse-power motor, which, in the opinion of a former member of the crew, was in perfect order.