BATTLE FOR LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 137, 7 December 1926, Page 9

BATTLE FOR LIFE

1

TWO MILES SWIM THROUGH

SHARK WATERS.

(From Oi'.r Own Corespondent.)

SYDNEY, 28sh November

The waters of Botany Bay are known to be shark-infeated, and that two young men should Aave swum through them two miles to shore after being capsized from a sailing boat, and be alive to tell their tale, is considered nothing short of a miracle by men who know the bay. Yet this befeJ four young men last Saturday. The men, Arthur Sales, Leslie Sleigh, Harold Williams, and Robert Carroll, set out in a 14-foot sailing skiff early in the.afternoon to compote in a race. A heavy sea was running, and about an hour later, a huge wave overwhelmed the small craft. Attempts were made to right the boat without success, and Sales, and Sleigh then decided to swim i'or the shore. It was a. hazardous endeavour, and for two hours they battled against waves and tide until finally they were able to stagger ashore in a'state of collapse. The men remembered nothing more, but they managed to reach a cottage, where a woman gave them hot stimulants, and treated them until ambulanco officers arrived.

Meanwhile, on the upturned boat, the other two men were having a trying time. Their plight became desperate as'the boat began, to drift out to the open sea. It was mere good fortune that a doctor driving a motor-car along a bay-side road chanced to see them waving. He informed a launch proprietor, and tho latter, after seeing through field-glasses that the men needed help, dashed after them- in a fast motor-boat, and rescued them.