BOATS CAPSIZE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 May 1921, Page 5

BOATS CAPSIZE.

THREE MEN DROWNED. TRAGEDY NEAR GISBORNE. ■ UPSET IN THE SURF. By Telegraph. —Pre*'' Association Gisborne, May 20. Three men were drowned in a boating accident here to-day. During t-he progress of salvage operations thin morning in connection with the Huanui, which was stranded on the Waikanae beach, a boat capsized in the surf, and another boat which put off to her assistance also capsized. The drowned are: Captain Charles Anderson, master of the Huanui, a married man, whose wife resides at Parnell with four children. Captain Adolphus Martin, Gisborne, married, with a wife and iiyJames Hadfield, a waterside worker, married, Gisborne. Salvaging operations commenced this morning, a line being sent ashore from the tug Karoro. The boat conveying the line, containing four men, capsized in the surf. Captain Anderson, of the Huanui, immediately launched his boat from shore, and when it reached the locality of the other boat, about a quarter of a mile out, it also capsized, throwing the three occupants into the sea. Two of the men swam ashore, reaching the sand in an exhausted condition.

Captain Anderson, who was handicapped by heavy sea boots, hung on to the bottom of the boat, but was turned over several times by the waves and he disappeared. Meanwhile two of the men from the Karoro succeeded in getting ashore, but Captain Martin and Hadfield, who had been clinging on the bottom of the boat, were washed away as it overturned in the surf.

The boat from the Karoro negotiated the first breaker successfully, but broached to after the second breaker came along. All the men were thrown out. Coleman and Dommey swam ashore and landed in an exhausted condition.

Immediately those ashore saw the boat capsize Captain Anderson, Coleman and Crocker launched the Huanui’s lifeboat and proceeded to the rescue They passed the men swimming in, who assured them they were all right. When within about ten feet of Captain Martin he threw up his hands and went down. Two seas swept over the boat, and another came along and tipped it over bow first. Captain Anderson hung on to the boat, and that was the last seen of him. The others, Crocker and Coleman, got clear and made for the shore, Coleman assisting his companion, who was exhausted.