ONLY ONE SURVIVOR.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 45, 23 February 1926, Page 7

ONLY ONE SURVIVOR.

CARDIGAN CASTLE LOST. THE BOATS-WAIN'S STORY. RESCUED AT LAST GASP. (By Cable.-Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON. February 22. The Story of an heroic effort to save the life of a pet dog figures in the account of his experience given by the boatswain, Mr. Henry Batchelor, the sole survivor of the missing Swansea trawler, Cardigan Castle. After describing the hopelessness of the crew when the trawler was wrecked and the only lifeboat broke its painter and drifted away in the intense darkness. Mr. Batchelor recounted how he dived and struck out in the direction of the drifting boat. He sank twice in trying to take off his sea boots, but ultimately came to the surface again, when he felt a soft fluffy object. It was the Captain's "Pom.," which had evidently been washed overboard. Mr. Batchelor seized the dog by his teeth and struggled desperately to reach the boat, which meanwhile had drifted further away. Finally he caught it up, wriggled aboard, bailed out the water, and tucked the dog under his jersey to keep it warm. It was raining hard and blowing heavily, and the big seas occasionally made the dog cry with fright. The Cardigan Castle had meantime disappeared. Mr. Batchelor was on the point of collapse from cold, hunger and thirst when ho was picked up just as he thought he was about to die. There were no oars in the boat, and ho had to use a shovel alternately as a paddle and a scull in order to steer her to the shore. His thirst after his immersion in the water was terrible. The only food in the boat consisted of two raw potatoes, i These were soaked in salt water, and he refrained from eating them as he felt sure he would lose his reason if he did so.—(A. and N.Z. Cable.) AIR SEARCH FRUITLESS. NO TRACES TO BE SEEN. LONDON, February 22. After many hours of perilous flying in the teeth of a gale which was blowing at a velocity of 40 miles an hour, the Free State airmen who were seeking for survivors of the Swansea trawler, Cardigan Castle, off the coast of Galway, had to abandon the search. A parcel containing food and first-aid fittings was dropped on High Island, but no signs of life were observed there. Mr. James Batchelor, who is mate on another Swansea trawler, hurriedly travelled to Galway expecting to identify a body believed to be that of his brother, Henry, the boatswain of the Cardigan Castle. He had actually entered the mortuary when news was received that his brother was safe, though he was the only known survivor of the crew of the Cardigan Castle.—(Reuter—"Sun.")