Fatal Boating Accident.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5192, 7 September 1885, Page 2

Fatal Boating Accident.

FIVE LIVES LOST.

(Per Pbiss Association.)

Dunbdin, This day. Between 9 and 10 o'clock yesterday forenoon Captain James Ferguson, the local agent of the Union Co., accompanied by his six children and Mr and Mrs Arthur Jackson, with their two children, took a waterman's boat at Port Chalmers for the purpose of paying a visit to Mrs Jackson, senr., grandmother of the whole of the children, and proceeded down the harbor under sail, and after rounding Acheron Head the weather became exceedingly squally, the wind veering from N.W. to S.W., and blowing fresh. The sail was wrapped round the mast prior to the mast being unshipped, when a sudden gust struck the boat, causing her to heel over and precipitate the whole of the occupants into (bo water. The children were placed on the bottom of the boat, but she again rolled over, and the little ones were thrown into the water, with the result that four of Captain Ferguson's children, named Mary, John, James, and Alexander, and Christina Jackson, were drowned. Several fishermen living on the side of the Bay, on seeing the accident, put off without loss of time, and succeeded in saving Maggie and Agnes Ferguson, Mrs Jackson and her daughter Katlierine, with Capt. Ferguson and Mr Jackson. They also recovered the bodies of John and Mary Ferguson. Captain Ferguson is greatly exhausted, and is almost prostrate with grief. The accident is a severe blow to him, following closely upon the death of his wife.