VIVID STORY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 27, 29 December 1932, Page 2

VIVID STORY

NAPIER LAUNCH TRAGEDY. MEN CLING TO HULL. Per Press Association. NAPIER, Dec. 2J. Some survivors of the harbour tragedy this morning gave vivid an rowing accounts of the scene a. Doris floated keel uppermost dozen men clinging to her hull ana others surrounding her. ~ -the Tu At., was right on top of us when 1 first saw her, said M a. Withington. “The Doris shot o\ei t port, and forward, screwing like a bullet, and her capsize was aided J the reason of the fact that many men in the stern rushed to the port side, weight helping to throw her ovw. i was sitting on the port side and ■■ plunged five or ten yards out into water. Other men were flung on on top of another. W hen confusion calmed down a j many made for the Doris ancl clung to her hull. Some " , injured. I made for the shore and after swimming about 150 yards reached the light at the end of the eastern pier.”

HAMPERED BY CLOTHING. Some of the men, according to Mr Withington, were more handicapped than others by the weight of then clothes. Thirteen of them, lie snub had been working wool on tho loit Hunter, but fifteen others who had been in the freezers on the Port Brisbane were wearing more clothing. Most of them had on tiro pair of trousers as well as two garments over the upper part of their body (either shirts or woollen jumpers), as well as topcoats.

■Mr Wilniot noticed several men making frantic efforts to keep afloat by clutching at the overturned launch. The weight of the men clamboring into her caused her to sink. Two men caught hold of Mr V ilmot and dragged him down again, but he managed to figln, his way clear and started to struggle towards the shore, which he gained after a long, trying battle. On coining to the surface after the launch had overturned, Mr R. Pratt commenced to swim for the pier, but changed his mind and returned to the launch, to which 11 men were desperately clinging. “On tho way. back,” said' Mr Pratt this morning. “I saw another man struggling in the water and grabbed him by the collar of his coat to try and help him to keep afloat, but his coat came off in my hand. I did not see him again.” ANOTHER BODY FOUND. Another body, that of Mr Robert Applin, has been recovered. Earlier messages appear on pages 7 and 8.