SWEPT TO DEATH.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 169, 1 May 1935, Page 8

SWEPT TO DEATH.

WELSH CAPTAIN’S BRAVERY. LIFE GIVEN FOR CREW. After helping all his crew to safety, when the ship was being smashed to pieces against the Black Point -rocks off the coast of Nova Scotia, in a snowstorm, Captain Duncan I). Milne, of Cardiff, was drowned. His ship, the .Newcastle freighter, Kenkerry (3930 tons) ran on to the rocks during the night. Its crew of 28 men mainly from Cardiff and Port Talbot, South Wales, w’ere rescued in an exhausted condition after hours of hardship in a pounding gale. Following the highest traditions of the sea, Captain Milne insisted on remaining bn the sinking ship until all his crew got ashore in the breeches buoy. Meanwhile the ship split in two. When the skipper tried to get into the buoy himself he was so chilled by the intense cold during liis long wait that he lost grip and fell into the sea. A huge wave-swept him to death. The Kenkerry was bound from Baltimore for Halifax to pick up a cargo) of gtain. In a blinding snowstorm she stranded in Portuguese Cove about 100 yards from land. It was pitch dark and the crew fired rockets to summon help. Within half an hour her hold began to ,fil] with water and her lights failed. Heavy seas pounded over her. It v r as impossible to use the boats to get to the.'shore which is studded with sharp rocks. Tugboats from Halifax arrived hut could not get near the doomed ship. . It was then that fishermen from Portuguese Cove village came to the rescue. The crew shot a line ashore and the fishermen made it fast. One of the crew, Stanley Davis, of Port Talbot, South Wales, was the first to get into the buoy. Hie basket stuck half-way, however, and he was tossed into the sea. He was hauled back on hoard. Another line was fired, and this time the breeches buoy was effective. One man after another -reached safety and then came the tragic climax of the skipper’s death. Shortly afterward the vessel disappeared.