HEROIC RESCUE OF HORSE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXV, Issue 14259, 7 January 1947, Page 4

HEROIC RESCUE OF HORSE

EFFORTS TO SAVE ANIMAL “Rosie” has been given a twomonths holiday, and Darcy Pettersen, five-year veteran of the A.I.F. is being called a hero. This is how it happened, states a message from Sydney:

Rosie, a draught horse, one day in the course of duty backed a dray full of rubbish onto a jetty at Pyrmont. The dray tipped, but the rubbish did not fall, and horse and dray toppled back onto a barge 12 feet below. Rosie lay .pinned on her back by the harness, in grave danger of being choked.

Braving the madly lashing feet of the frightened animal, Pettersen jumped onto the barge and managed to release Rosie, who then fell into the water.

Into the water went Petersen after her, where he struggled for over half an hour to get the horse into a position where a mobile crane could lift her out. At one time he was swimming in darkness under a wharf, among masses of molasses and sugar, but he finally accomplished his purpose.

Said the gatekeeper at the wharf, “It was one of the bravest things I ever saw. Pettersen carried on just as though it was a human life he was saving. The horse would never have got out except for him.”