LYTTELTON.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2005, 8 June 1875, Page 2

LYTTELTON.

Monday. A large amount of damage has been done by the gale, especially amongst the .watermen's boats^ and several casualties occurred amongst the shipping through collisions. The following are the particulars regarding the loss of the men from the Syren,:—The ■ boat, a new whaleboat twenty eight feet in length, ,well found, left the wharf at 7.30 p.m., with six hands, four of them pulling, and all sober. The crew pulled off, and when half-way between the shore and the vessel a southerly buster came on, torrents of rain falling, and the night being pitch dark. For two hours the men struggled against the gale, and finding they could not fetch their barque, they pulled towards the bark Mystery, which was anchored off Rhodes' Bay. A line was thrown from this vessel, which the men unfortunately missed, and the boat drifted by. The apprentice, knowing Gollan's Bay, suggested that the boat should be headed in that direction, and it should be beached there. A light from a house in the bay was' at times seen by the men, and the boat's head was" put to the; shore, and. it was pulled towards the bay. Cavers, who was 1 pulling the bow oar, getting < exhausted, shifted into the bow of the boat to look out for breakers and rocks ahead. The men pulled towards shore, but' in the darkness came on" the sunken rocks which run out some distance near Polhill's Bay, when' the boat grounded oh , the rocks. Cavers was pitched out head' foremost, but he held on to the boat's painter, and three times ho tried to pull up the boat but'failed. The last time the' bow of the boat struck him in the chest, causing him to- lest»go the, rope./ -The "wash of the sea thgn dexried 'him up on to the rocks, and on r^coveringfhimself he called out for his mates, U"»t could not get any reply from them. then made his way to Lyttelton, and Reported the. matter to .the authorities:' On Saturday 1 morning Captain, Rees went round to-sec if he could' learn' anything of the unfortunate j men or the boat. He saw the debris of a boat he recognised as his own, and recovered some of the oars. The name* of the men are Evan Morris (second daaj;e), N. P. Larson, W.'Toomy, S. Wilson, and Arthur Winch. •