A Gallant Rescue.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XI, Issue 550, 25 May 1880, Page 7

A Gallant Rescue.

The ironclad Invincible, Captain the Hon. Edmund Freeman tie, C.8., was the other day ordered from Alexandra to Aboukir Bay, a passage which leads across the Nile mouths, in a shallow and often turbulent sea. The ironclad was steaming about seven knots to the hour, when one of the leadsmen fell into the rolling waves. At once the cry of " man overboard" rang through the ship, and all the necessary measures were taken which good discipline and maritime knowledge prescribed. The engines were stopped and reversed, the lifebuoys loosed from the bridge and taffrail, while the boats were called away, manned, and lowered with the utmost promptitude. But the poor fellow who had slipped overboard still held, or had managed to lay hold of, the lead-line, the consequence being that, although kept up in the water, he was dragged below its surface by the vessel's motion. After a very little while of this submersion, the unlucky bluejacket became choked by the sea, and, letting go his grasp, floated insensible and already half-dead, astern of the ship, with his dead drooping under the water. Captain Freeraantle, who was watching what was going on from the bridge, understood in a moment that any delay must cost the poor seaman's life. Without an instant's hesitation, therefore, the gallant officer sprang into the waves—just as he stood, in cap, seaboots, coat, and all—and, striking out hard and straight for his object, reached the spot to find his man slowly sinking away from sight. He caught him up, got his head clear of the sea, and so, with great difficulty, held the drowning man during the interval in the arrival of assistance. Help, of course, soon came. Sub.-Lieut. Moore and the blacksmith's mate, Cunningham, were the first two whose brave hearts sent them overboard to lend the captain a hand. These gallant fellows, nevertheless, only just swam up in time, for the captain's boots and heavy clothes were dragging him down, and it was a glad moment when the boat flew near and took all four safe from the water.