WRECK OF YACHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1940, Page 6

WRECK OF YACHT

INQUEST ON VICTIMS. CORONER RETURNS VERDICT OF DROWNING. (By Telegraph—Press Association,) TAURANGA. This Day. The inquest concerning the deaths of Leslie Mafeking Mellars, Roy Elrick Tonkin, and John Herbert Willcock who lost their lives when the yacht Ngahuia was wrecked on Matakana Island on January 14 was resumed today. Frank Gordon Gresham, owner of the Ngahui,a, said that on returning from White Island they encountered bad weather with poor visibility and

were unable to see the mount or the north rock light. At two o’clock hq lower 1 the anchor as a precaution and at 3.15 the yacht was knocked down by three successive curlers. No damage was done. The next wave broke the mast, and the hatches were lorn off. The dinghy was washed away and a hole was made in the cabin top. The yacht had evidently hit the bottom. The crew decided to leave the boat on

kapoc mattresses. Tonkin was first away and then Willcock. The remaining three stayed aboard until the yacht sank. They then left together. Witnesslost his mattress but managed to make the shore after about half an hour. He noticed "that all the mattresses were ashore and he thought the crew were safe.

Arthur John Denby gave evidence regarding the finding of some bodies at the north rock. The light was the worst he had ever experienced. The coroner returned a verdict that the three met their deaths by drowning as the result of a yachting accident in a severe storm. He hoped the question of a light at the mount would receive publicity and he would attach a note to depositions suggesting that the Minister of Justice direct the attention of the Minister of Marine to the position of the light.