DINGHY SWAMPED.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 393, 27 March 1937, Page 8

DINGHY SWAMPED.

YOUNG CRICKETER’S DEATH. Evidence at the Inquest. Press Association —Copyright. Auckland. March 24. Death by drowning was the verdict returned by Mr. F. K. Hunt, coroner, at the inquest into the death of Edward James Dunning, aged 24, one of Auckland’s best known young cricketers, who was lost from a dinghy which was swamped in choppy seas as a picnic party was returning to a launch at Murray's Bay on the night of March 14. Evidence was given by the companions of Dunning, who were also in the dinghy, and the coroner congratulated Mr. G. W. Ratcliffe on his attempts to rescue Dunning, who was unable to swim. A number of members of the Grafton Cricket Club gathered at Murray’s Bay for the day to farewell a clubmate, Mr. J. Gowie, who had been se lected to represent New Zealand in England. Speeches were made and toasts honoured on the launch’s arrival in the morning, and the afternoon was spent in playing cricket and swimming. It was as the launch party was leaving to return to the city that the tragedy occurred. David Alvis Hohbs, grocery manager, said he rowed two boatloads of tour and five persons respectively out to the launch, and there were live on board as he was rowing out for the last z time. About 25 yards from the launch three waves, which were larger than others running at the time, filled the dinghy, which was a sound boat. Dunning was sitting right forward, and he and the witness clung to the dinghy as it swamped, the other three swimming out to the launch. “Tfte dinghy overturned several times,” Mr. Hobbs continued, “and when I asked the deceased if he could swim he told me he would not be able to reach the launch. I held on to Dunning when the dinghy rolled over and we sank several times. We were both weakening and the last time I lest my grip on "him Dunning did not struggle, but seamed to give up hope soon after the dinghy sank." Garnet Walter Ratcliffe, commercial traveller, said he dived from the launch to assist when the dinghy swamped. He found Hobbs and Dunning clinging to the boat, both almost exhausted. Ratcliffe and Hobbs, who was weakening all the time and sank twice, paddled with Dunning, who was helpless, to within 15 yards of the launch, when Dunning sank out of sight. After carrying out an unsuccessful search from the launch, they decided to return to town and report to the police. “In spite of warnings, some people will never sit still in a boat, and this seems to have been a case in point,” said the coroner in announcing the verdict.