Schoolgirl Trapped In Upturned Boat

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31655, 16 April 1968, Page 16

Schoolgirl Trapped In Upturned Boat

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) LONDON, April 15. For 30 minutes a 14-year-old schoolgirl ✓ was trapped beneath an upturned motor-boat at sea while rescuers tapped messages to encourage her to fight off unconsciousness.

Christine Phillips was in a fishing party of five thrown into the sea off the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, when the boat capsized. Two of the men aboard vanished and a search by ships and helicopters failed to find them. Rescuers who fished the other two men out of the water were trying to right the boat when they heard a tapping from inside the upturned hull, and realised Christine was trapped underneath. She was wearing a lifejacket and breathing from a pocket of trapped air. The rescuers hauled the upturned vessel into shallow water—all the time tapping on the hull to give Christine encouragement and were eventually able to heave It up-

right and drag the girl free from the ropes in which she was entangled. ' Christine was recovering in hospital late last night. In another accident yesterday, Mr Jack Reeves, aged 44, and his five-year-old son, Keith, were drowned when their dinghy capsized in the Thames Estuary, off Canvey Island.