CHILDREN ADRIFT IN DINGHY

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 194, 12 May 1924, Page 6

CHILDREN ADRIFT IN DINGHY

CAUGHT BY SOUTHERLY SQUALL PLUCKY .. THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD GIRL RESCUE BY HARBOUR BOARD TUG (BY TELEGRAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) Christchurch, May 11. A twelve-foot dinghy containing five children —the eldest a girl of 13 years and the youngest two years, the family of Mr. J. Burns, chief signalman at Addersley Head—was blown out into Lyttelton Harbour during a heavy southerly squall this morning. The children were paddling near the jetty at Port Cooper, when a squall caught the little craft. From the harbour the eldest girl (Isobel) managed to row the boat into comparative shelter under Adderley Head and dropped anchor. The anchor, however, commenced to drag, and Isabel dived overboard and tried to swim ashore to make a line fast to the rocks. She could not make a landing, so she swam back to the dinghy, and with the greatest difficulty regained the boat. A heavy sea was running and she was hanging on to the gunwale for half an hour before a big sea swept her back into the boat. The alarm was given at Lyttelton, and the Harbour Board tug went to the scene. At great risk the tug was manoeuvred to where the dinghy was tossing about near the rocks under the cliff, and the children were hauled aboard. In the course of the rescue operations one of the tug’s crew was knocked overboard but was quickly rescued. The tug’s crew marvelled that the little dinghy had lived in the sea that was running. The children appeared little the worse for their adventure.