QUIET HEROISM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 814, 11 May 1910, Page 5

QUIET HEROISM.

t. An interesting,' account, of. an act,, .of quiet bravery on the part of a British sailor is contained ,in a letter, to Mr. T. W. Moore, secretary of-the-Imperial Merchant . Service Guild,, from Captain J. Peters, of the Hiituihct, who roudered signal services in rescuing—under circumstances . of' a very perilous nature—the greater portion of . thosa on board the steamer Lima, wrecked on Huamblin Island, coast of Chile.. "We, tho master and officers of the (steamship Hatumet," lie writes, "feel it our duty to make known,the conspicuous bravery of Mr. I. Nicholson, chief officer; pf the. Lima. From tho ; time Mr. Nicholson first came alongside, our ship when 'we 'anchored there iintil the time 'he' met his death never for a- mbment did 'his courage waver. He is now beyond ; tho Teach of earthly reward,. but never ■ was the highest award for valour more: nobly won than was won by. him. ':At daybreak on the second day Mr. Nicholson, instead of remaining comfortably on, board the Hatumet, as ho might have .done, persisted in manning the'two boats with his own crews, about twenty of,whom were on board the Hatumet, in proferenco to our Lascar. crew. Those •in •. the : boats had great difficulty in-clearing the rope connecting the two ships; on' account of it having got foul of the rocks on the bottom:. Eventually, after 'great perseverance,; Mr-Nicholson and his crew succeeded in making tho connection between the two ships .with another rope. Mr. Nicholson, with : bis boat,was ' the first to approach the stern- of the Lima, and after ' several daring attempts " succeeded in getting the end of thei small line from the Lima, which; was to bo used in'hauling the people through tho water to the boats. But before anyone had , passed' from the ship to the boat a heavy swell went along, which appeared 'to throw the boat clean out of the water, and'she fell bottom up. .The second boat went to the rescue of tho boat's "crew, bht wero only successful iri saving two men, who had managed to ■ climb on to tho bottom of the boat; tile . others, including Mr. Nicholson, had been swept away."