FISHING TRAGEDY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1942, Page 3

FISHING TRAGEDY

UPTURNED BOAT FOUND TWO MEN DEAD. A BOY RESCUED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, April 13. The 12-foot sailing boat which failed to return after setting out from Eastern Beach for a fishing trip on Sunday morning with two men and a boy aboard, was found floating on its side off Motuihi Island about midday today. On it was the boy, John Paul, aged 13, son of Mr and Mrs S. F. Paul, One Tree Hill, and floating in the water was the body of Mr Harry Gallaugher, aged 52, of Epsom, who had apparently died from exposure. The third member of the party, Mr Arthur Haydon, aged 50, was missing, and is believed to have been drowned soon after the boat capsized at about I. p.m. on Sunday. This morning Mr H. Walmsley, of Eastern Beach, accompanied by other men, set out in search of the missing boat, and when approaching Motuihi Island they sighted another sailing vessel owned and being sailed by Mr C. J. Twigg, Orakei, who reported that he had found the upturned sailing boat with the boy sitting on it and Mr Gallaugher in the water near the mast. The boy still seemed to be in remarkably good spirits in spite of his harrowing experience during the previous 24 hours, and he still held one of the oars from the ill-fated vessel.

Mr Walmsley took over and brought the boat, the boy, and the body of Mr Gallaugher to Eastern Beach, where Mr and Mrs Paul had spent the weekend in a caravan. When Mr Walmsley’s vessel approached the shore, the parents, who had spent an anxious time, could see their son standing in the bow and waving to therm .