Note there was a Mr COMMONS as a passenger on the Tryphena from Auckland to Sydney 1845 MAR
PPA Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIII, Issue 895, 25 January 1856, Page 3
Melancholy Accident.? We feel sincerely grieved to communicate the sudden death, by drowning, of .Mr. John Commons, one of the earliest of our Auckland colonists. The particulars of this lamentable event, with which we have been furnished by Mr, Creighton, are as follows :? On Saturday evening Mr. Common's took a pass >ge for Wairoa on board the cutter ' Flirt,' commanded by Mr Creighton. The cutter had made her passage down the Thames, and was off the cluster of islands, lying between Cape Colville and Coromandel Harbour, through which she had to run to letch her port ; she was carrying the wind right aft, and her main sheet was eased off to the full extent, the tack being hauled up. At this time, that is to say at 3.30 a m. of Sunday, the moon h±id gone down, and there had been a heavy shower of rain, after which the wind freshened greatly from the southward. Mr. Commons anxious to make the land, had gone forward to take its bparings. and was returning along the weather side of the boat to the stern, when the vessel was suddenly taken aback by a flaw of wind, which caused the buoiu to jib. Mr. Commons was in the act of stepping oer the boom, about four or five feet abaft the mast, when the canvas became distended by the rush of wind, and he was hurled instantaneously ox erboard by the swing and jeik of the boom. Mr. Creighton immediately brought the cutter by the wind, on the port tack, in doing which she nearly turned oer. Having taken m the gaff-topsail, he then tried to fetch to windward in the hope of reaching Mr. Commons, who, at some considerable 1 distance to windward, was heard to murmur, "Ah 1 Ah !" Having stood some time on that tack, (the 'Flirt' cariies no boat, and is sailed by the master and a native lad only) the cutter made another boa d, Mr Creighton called out loudly, "Mr. Commons, Mr. Commons ;" but there was no answer, and every hope of rescue was at an end. On arriving at Wairoa, Mr Creighton offered the natives a reward of £5 for the recovery of the body. A like reward was offered at Paparoha, and Coiomandel Harbour. Several canoes departed from Paparoha, on the search, but hitherto without effect. John Commons immigrated to to Auckland in 1842.
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