RESCUE IN NORTH SEA

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22016, 13 February 1937, Page 4

RESCUE IN NORTH SEA

STEAMER SINKS IN GALE YOUNG NORWEGIAN'S BRAVE** (JBOK OV& OWM CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, January 23, A thrilling rescue at sea was made in a 90-mile an hour gale when the Norwegian steamer Trym, bound for Middlesbrough with iron ore, began to pink 50 miles away from the Norwegian coast. The Trym's wireless messages were answered by the Venus, a Norwegian mail and passenger motor-ship, but it could only stand by for 48 hours while the storm raged. One lifeboat was destroyed by gigantic waves, and a second took about an hour to get to leeward of the Trym while the .Venus pumped oil into the sea. Eventually the lifeboat was able to approaoh within striking distance of the Trym, and five of the crew of 19 jumped into the water and were taken aboard with utmost difficulty as they were already greatly exhausted when they jumped overboard. The rescue aroused tremendous public interest. Radio messages told how the crew of the Trym had been rescued after the Venus had stood by for 48 hours, after all hope for their safety had been abandoned. Deck Hand's Heroism Not revealed in these messages, however, was the story of * the heroism of a 23-year-old deckhand, Perry Opsahl. Heady to sacrifice his life for his exhausted comrades, he volunteered to swim out to the lifeboat launched from the Venus. Off he went, with a rope round his waist and after what he described aa an "age-long nightmare" he reached the lifeboat. "The end seemed so near," he said in Newcastle, "that I decided $» take a desperate chance." The(Trym's skipper, M. Torlic Torkildsen jwild hw crew were magnificent "Opiahl was the hero of them all," he added, "But for his eravery we might never have been saved. The Trym was crippled at Slight aj» terrible storm. We sprang s leak, hatches were broken down, and before ltmg we began to sink