BRAVE LIFE-SAVERS

Evening Post, Volume CIV, Issue 147, 19 December 1927, Page 8

BRAVE LIFE-SAVERS

OFF SYDNEY BEACH

WORK IN TREACHEROUS SEAS

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 9th December • Aearly every week-end of the Sydney wo, kSh Se?f °n 1S re^onsible for splendid jvoik by the courageous bands of trained life-savers, who honorary patrol the beaches along the coast and guard the lives of bathew, reckless and otherwise who patronise the beaches in their tew of inpTl^ 9- Th<T, Waving feats ilium me the pages of Australian sportsmanship miT^^ their fll«wS« number must be added one of. the-most remarkable events , n Weaving work. For more than an hour members of the Clovelly Life-saving Club last Sunday fought to rescue three youths who had been swept from the rocks. Two of the youths were saved. Spmnf el' t Wa X ?row.n.ed. desPite the heroic attempts to bring him ashore iive youths were "exploring" along the rooks, and one of the huge waves which were poundiog incessantly against the headland swept three of. the youthsKoffh If Woolndge, Evan Hughes, and Keith Stayertr-mto the surf. They were being earned rapidly out to sea when the siur- club patrol on duty gave the alarm. JJie distance from the surf club-house to where the youths had been washed into the sea was half a mile along the beach and over rough rocks. A "number of the life-savers earned the reel to that end of the beach and one of them, It. Slater, donned the belt, and another, D. Pike HnV" w d , -? 6 surf- fiy this time Hughes, Woolridge, and Stavert were 200 yards out at sea. Pike reached Hughes and assisted him towards the shore, until that had put out. Slater in the meantime had reached Woolridge, and then began a stern battle against the sea, which was too rough to permit him to land Woolridge on the rocks. Suddenly a huge wave skept the reel away, blater, seeing the predicament he and his patient were in, disengaged himselt from the belt, and continued to support Woolridge. In this way Slater put up an unequal fight against the sea for more than a quarter of an hour. Woolridge was unconscious, and Slater was fast becoming exhausted, but still held on to his patient. The strain was telling on Slater, and apparently his grip on Woolridge was weakening, for suddenly a cry of horror went up from the crowds on the beach when Woolridge disappeared in the sea. He was not seen again. The fishing boat which had picked up Hughes took Slater aboard and carried him to the beach. His strenuous experience had completely exhausted him. His work against great odds earned for him the plaudits of the crowd on the beach. He told an interviewer afterwards that he was brokenhearted at having lost Woqlridge. Two other members of the Clovelly Club, W. Miller and C. Brooks, in the meantime had reached the third youth, Stavert, and assisted him round the rocks into the bay. This involved a swim of 300 yards through treacherous seas. Miller and Brooks, in common with the others engaged in the work of rescue, showed remarkable courage, and were accorded a great ovation when they returned to shore. Nearly all the rescuers received cuts about their bodies from the jagged rocks, and had to undergo treatment at a hospital. Woolridge, the youth who was drowned, had arrived from England only a few weeks ago.