Cast Line To Save Drowning Man

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30390, 14 March 1964, Page 12

Cast Line To Save Drowning Man

(New Zealand Press Association) DUNEDIN, March 13. Mr Aubrey Sutherland, an Oamaru angler, made a desperate cast at a drowning man yesterday—and saved his life.

The man, Mr Leslie Clark, of Oaraaru, was recovering from his ordeal in the Oamaru Hospital tonight. The incident happened near the mouth of the Waitaki river, on the north side, about 4.30 p.m. Mr Sutherland, who had been flsiting near Mr Clark —a stranger to him —had wandered over to the other man to see how he was making out. As Mr Sutherland was leaving he turned and saw Mr Clark wading across a channel cut by the sea towards an island. Suddenly, a breaker hurled Mr Clark into a deep lagoon and be floundred in heavy surf. Unable to swim, and with no help at hand, Mr Sutherland watched horrified as the other man’s attempts to swim were thwarted by thigh gumboots and heavy clothing. Mr Sutherland was reluctant to cast his line at first for fear of dazing Mr Clark with his heavy sinker. But when the drowning man was submerged for the third time Mr Sutherland, from a shingle bank 25ft to 30ft above, made the cast of his life. “I hooked him and managed to drag him slowly up the shingle,” Mr Sutherland said. “I knew I could snag him.

but was worried about the hooks holding. My line had a 401 b breaking strain.” Mr Clark was unconscious when Mr Sutherland hauled him to safety. “He had been face down in the water when I pulled him in and I thought he was done for,” Mr Sutherland said. “But I turned him over and he breathed slowly.” Two friends of Mr Sutherland, who had been fishing a half-mile away, were soon on the scene. Mr Clark was taken by boat to the north bank of the river and then by ambulance to hospital. He was suffering from mild shock. Hie condition tonight was satisfactory.