(Transcription from the June 6, 1952 St. Petersburg Times)

Six Lives Lost When Excursion Ship
Sinks 40 Miles Northeast of Nassau

  NASSAU, Bahamas -- (AP) -- A
board of inquiry completed one
phase of its investigation yester-
day into the sinking of the island
motor vessel Zelma Rose on Sun-
day with the loss of six lives.

  Seventeen persons were res-
cued.  Some swam many hours in
the shark-infested waters.  Others
crowded aboard a small dingy or
took turns swimming alongside.

  AMONG THE SURVIVORS was
an 18-months-old boy who was
pulled unconscious from a cabin
by his father.  The child was re-
vived with artificial respiration
under direction of a nurse who
drowned a few minutes later.

  The inquiry board heard wit-
nesses describe how the 30-ton ex-
cursion vessel ran into rough
weather and 15-foot waves and fi-
nally rolled over "quick as a
flash" near Six Shilling Cay, about
40 miles northeast of Nassau.

  The skipper, Capt. Edison
Higgs, told the board before it
adjourned until June 12, that he
was at the wheel when the Zel-
ma Rose overturned.  He said he
pulled four persons from the
submerged dining room and did
his best to keep the others
afloat.

  Paul Lightbourn said he and his
wife were on deck when the ves-
sel lurched and capsized at 2:50
a.m. Sunday enroute to Spanish-
Wells with excursionists and a
cargo of lumber, furniture and
gasoline filled drums.

  Their 18-months-old son, Ter-
rance, was asleep in a cabin be-
low decks.

  Lightbourn dove down into the
submerged cabin and after sever-
al unsuccessful attempts finally
grabbed the little boy's foot and
pulled him unconscious to the sur-
face.

  Oona Newbold, 23, a nurse from
Nassau, told Lightbourn how to re-
vive the lad and mother and child
were put into the dingy along
with others who were not capable
swimmers.

  Miss Newbold joined several
other persons in the water.  Mrs.
Harry Knowles of Nassau, told
rescuers: "Oone Newbold and I
were swimming along together
when she said she could go no
further.  Then she disappeared."

  The other dead were listed as
Carol Newbold, 18, a Nassau clerk
and Oona's sister; Mary Con-
stance Brace, 61, a native of
Hereford, England, and a Sunday
school teacher in Nassau; Wel-
bourn Pinder, a crewmember, of
Nassau, Ephram, a Negro native
of Andros Island and Charles Al-
green, 44, of Current Island.

  Thirteen of the survivors were
in or holding onto the dingy.  The
others clung to portions of the
Zelma Rose until it finally sank
at 10 a. m.  Then they swam until
the sloop Sally picked them up
off Six Shilling Cay.