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From A Letter By Charles Bowen, Senior To His Brother In England, 1851

We have, this moment—June 25th—received a shock at hearing that Ward and his brother Henry have been drowned. Their bodies have not been found, but from the circunv stances I fear the probability of their loss is but too well grounded. Ward had selected his land on Quail Island, about a mile from Port Lyttelton, nearly opposite the harbour, and had just gone to live there with his two brothers. Yesterday Wortley, with one or two others, went over to see them, and on arrival found poor Hamilton Ward and their servants in much alarm. They stated that the day before (Monday) Edward and Henry had gone off in a row boat to the bottom of the bay to take off some firewood. Towards evening they began to look anxiously for their return, but fancied they must have lost the tide and could not get off. Yesterday morning, however, there was no sign of them, and they had no other boat in the Island to go in search. On hearing this, Wortley set out with Hamilton and two of his men for the shore, and soon discovered the boat some distance from the land—keel up. One oar was stuck in the boat, but there was no means of judging how the event had occurred. Search was made, but not even a hat, coat, or any vestige has been found. They had a water dog with them, which is not forthcoming. The shore was strewed with the firewood with which they had evidently loaded the boat. We feel deeply grieved at this sad event. In Ward we lose one of the best of our brother colonists. I shall add any further accounts. Charles is off on the search.

In a later part of the letter, dated July 1st, he writes:

Charles and Croasdaile have just come home from Lyttelton, after consigning to the dust the remains of poor page 202Edward Ward. Charles has been out in a boat, buffeting the waves, for the last four days, and on Sunday he, with Mr Maunsell and Ward's men, brought in the body, which had been thrown on the beach by the last tide. The other body has not been, and will now probably never be, found. No telling how the event occurred. Probably they had too much timber in the boat, or that not having fixed well it may have shifted. They were both good hands in a boat and both strong swimmers.