THROUGH ROARING SEAS

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 49, 27 February 1929, Page 11

THROUGH ROARING SEAS

FREIGHTER'S CREW RESCUED. A GREAT MANOEUVRE. EPIC OF MARINE ANNALS. LIFEBOAT ABANDONED AFTER - 1 SAVING THIRTY-TWO LIVES. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SAN FRANCISCO, January 31. Cabled dispatches to the Antipodes gave but a fragmentary idea of the gallant rescue of 32 men of the sea, literally snatched from death after almost all right to hope had vanished. These men were the fateful crew of the Italian freighter Florida, storm-wrecked 800 miles at sea, and they were alive only because the courage of seamen from the land their countryman Columbus discovered was joined with fche mysterious power of radio to determine the direction of an object out of sight. Six of the crew were seriously injured, four others were very ill, and all were exhausted from their fight for life. But they were alive, and that was almost more than anyone would have thought could be their lot who could have seen their plight as Captain George Fried, of the rescue ship America, described it in his first account in a dispatch to New York from over the Atlantic Ocean.

The America was 350 miles awav. but j when Captain Fried determined that i although other ships were nearer, onlv one had a radio direction finder, he swung from hi-s course and pushed towards the belt of windy fury in which the freighter lay disabled. Before the America reached her, Ion" after dark, groping through roaring seas lashed by a snowy gale, the Florida's bridge had been washed away. She had listed so far her captain feared she would roll completely over, and her crew had been practically stripped of their clothing by the waves that battered unceasingly and the wind that lashed them with ice and sno.v. Captain Fried well knew the danger of the task to be attempted. Lifeboat No. 1 was swung out and down, though a full gale was blowing, and the wind carried a smother of snow to make things harder. Chief Officer Manning took command of the little boat, and eight men sat at the oars. The America's searchlight was plaving on the Florida as it tossed, broken and awash in tremendous seas. Manning approached to within 50ft and dared go no closer. He got a rope on the Florida's deck and one after another of the shivering sailors from the sinking wreck hurled themselves into the sea and pulled their way, hand over hand, to the cockleshell tnat was their one remaining hot>e of life. Rescue Rope Parts. There was one terrible moment during this time when the rope parted and some poor seaman, half-way across, had to be hauled back to the sodden deck he had been glad to leave. But another rope was got across and the transfer was completed.

The captain of the Florida was the last to leave his ship. He came crawling through the waves, and. like the rest, was hauled aboard the lifeboat. Captain Fried said the Florida's crew were dazed, hysterical, practically naked. Some were injured and some were ill. Most of them were nearly frozen and yet when the Italian captain was yanked aboard the lifeboat he thought first of all of reporting that the laws of the ,ea had been complied with.

Not one of all the 32 men from the Florida had strength to climb the ladders to the America's deck after what musS have been an exceptionally perilous journey in the heavily-loaded lifeboat. Home-made breeches buovs were lowered, and they were hauled "aboard, safe at last, after a long tussle with death that could scarcely have been more closely drawn.

The waves were so high that Captain Fried was afraid his men would be injured if they attempted to hoist the lifeboat back to its davits. It had served its purpose, and served it well, and it was cut adrift, to be battered apart no doubt and sink with the derelict Florida. Rescued Captain's Narrative. Writing a saga of the fight with the gale, Captain Giuseppe Favoloro. who had charge of the steamship Florida, said: "The ship was listed so badly that the water was entering my bunker hatch. At 6.12 p.m. I sighted the America. In accord with the America the salvage of my crew was started. I had my crew in lifebelts ready for the boat from the America. I placed lights on the leeside at the rail. It was a great manoeuvre on the part of the America, as I could do nothing to help. I had no rockets and could make no* great light for him to see. In approaching, he came abeam to windward and put a lifeboat in the sea. The lifeboat came up manouvering with great skill and threw us a line. We started getting off the boat. I counted my men one by one and was finally assured that all were on board the boat. Then I threw myself into the sea, taking the ship's papers and giving my last good-bye to the Florida that was sinking rapidly." "Everyone Volunteered." Full details of the actual rescue were told by Harry Manning, the diminutive chief officer, who Captain Fried smilingly pointed out as the real hero of the occasion. Manning is less than average height and weighs 1301b. This little sailor in blue and brass had pitted his knowledge and courage against all the force of sea and storm, and he had won. With modest hesitation he told how it wa3 done. "How did you select the eight men who went with you in the lifeboat?" he was asked. "Did you call for volunteers?" "Everyone volunteered," he said. 'T could have filled 40 boats. I chose eight whom I had worked with and knew. The trip to the Florida from the America wasn't so bad, except that we didn't dare to go very close because of the deckload of lumber that might have come tumbling down on us. But we got a line over, and the men from the Florida began pulling themselves through the water to us.

'"Most of them had taken off what clothes the storm had left them, eo they could swim better. Some of them were badly injured and you could hear them groaning as they crawled along through the waves. We yanked them in, and they lay there on the bottom of the boat, exhausted, dazed, silent.

"Captain Favoloro, of the Florida, came last. He seemed reluctant to leave his ship, but at last he, too, stepped into the sea and came over, and then the real battle began. The storm was increasing and a* the waves got higher my hopes went lower. I really newer thought we'd make it,"

It was only a 30ft boat, and it had 41 men in it, Manning said that the six oaremen were unable to make any progress and six of the rescued Italians had to be asked to help. They responded eagerly, though they were spent with days of struggle, and in a little more than an hour the quarter-mile between the two steamers was crossed "If we had been minutes later, said Manning, "I don't believe we would have made it. ' This point in the rescue, Manning said, marked the only instance when anyone showed any signs ot being unnerved. A couple of the rescued men leaped from the lifeboat to cargo nets let down the America's side instead ot waiting to be assisted. But they Vrere too weak and fell back, one on top of Manning, injuring his back, and the cxther across the lifeboat's gunwale. Thev were finally all hoisted aboard and'then Manning himself started up a ladder. But he was so worn with the struggle of the last two hours that he could not summon energy to pull himself up. He would have fallen into tne *ea, he said, had not assistant engineer Kin'?, of tne America, dragged him up to the deck, ladder and all. "It was all I a matter of co-operation," he said. The Italians did just as they were told and helped at every opportunity, and everyone worked together. It was a pertect example of co-operation.