"MAN OVERBOARD."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 268, 11 November 1937, Page 18

"MAN OVERBOARD."

HARBOUR TRAGEDY.

ACCIDENT SEEN BY MANY.

BUT ALARM NOT GIVEN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 5. When leaving Manly on the 8.20 a.m. ferry last Saturday, a number of passengers watched a launch following close in their their boat's wake. When it had got about half way to Sydney, between Clifton Gardens and Bradley"s Head, the launch seemed to catch the ferry's wash, and began to rock violently. There, was only one man visible "on board, and he was at the moment walking along the side of the launch. The sudden shock threw him into the water. The accident was noticed by at least 40 people on the ferry, and they raised the usual cry, "Man overboard." At this moment another launch and a yacht came over toward the first launch, and seemed to be about to aesist in rescuing the man. The ferry, which runs at a fast rate, drew rapidly away from the scene of the accident, and it was only when the little launch was almost out of sight that the onlookers on the ferry realised that their boat might have done something to help. No one called the attention of the captain or the officers of the ferry boat to the incident, and the passengers consoled themselves in the ueual facile way by hoping that "he's all right anyway."

Optimism 111-founded. Unfortunately their optimism was illfounded. Later in the day a launch, which had drifted across to the other rtide of the harbour, ran ashore near Rose Bay. There was no one on board, but the boat was identified as the property of James Eland (37), of Balmain. He had gone out at 5 a.m. in his launch on a fishing trip without companions, and it was he who was thrown into the water by the rocking of his boat near Bradley's He was a native of Scotland, a single man with no relations in Australia, and his disappearance left barely a ripple on the surface of the social or civil life of this great city. Many of those who took the trouble to follow the newspaper reports of this little tragedy, however, must have felt a sense of shame and humiliation as they read. It may seem almost incredible that eome 40 people seeing a man fall into the sea—it happens that Eland could not swim and apparently he made little effort to save himself—made no attempt either, to rescue him or to acquaint the officers of their own boat with his danger. It was a curious and depressing illustration of the paralysing apathy that seems sometimes to overwhelm large bodies of people when they are confronted suddenly by a dangeroue or tragic situation. Every man waits.

for his neighbour, no one steps into the breech,, and the irrevocable moment in which rescue or protection was possible passes swiftly away.

It is not lack of courage or hardiness of heart that can be charged against the men and women who saw Eland fall into the water and did nothing, but only the lack of that senise of personal responsibility for the safety and welfare of others, without which no social civilisation can ever be complete.