ALL-NIGHT ORDEAL

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 15, 19 January 1933, Page 11

ALL-NIGHT ORDEAL

SAW MATES DEOWN

A TRAGIC STORY

WHEN BOAT OVERTURNED

■» (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, 12th January. How they were forced to watch their comrades, overcome by sleeplessness ana exhaustion, release their hold from an upturned boat and disappear, was told by three young men who were rescued from the sea after an all-night battle. The men who lost their lives when the sailing boat was overturned in Moreton Bay, on the Queensland coast, were: — Ronald Edwin Davis, Francis Stephen Hughes, Norman David Bell, and' Douglas Scully. Those who were saved1 were Aubrey Joseph Bell, Kenneth' Daniel McNab, and William Alexander Robertson.

Interviewed in hospital the rescued men said that when they left Nunwich early on Friday afternoon last the sea was not heavy and they anticipated they would be able to reach Brisbane in two stages in two days. After they had covered about eight miles their boat, the Romp, ran into a strong South Easterly and was badly buffeted and they decided to make for shelter behind Peel Island. They veered the craft in that direction when a huge wave struck it broadside on, and as it heeled over a second wave struck it under the stern. More than half full of water, the boat capsized, and, pitched about by a heavy sea, they were hampered in their attempts to cut free the stays and so release the mast. " -.

The nose of. the boat submerged in about ten feet of water, and their only knife was missing. A wave washed Ron. Davis off the boat, but Scully dived in after him and brought him back. Hardlyi had Scully resumed his position, however, when Davis drifted into the water again and was rescued a second time, but went down later, the others being too far gone to help' him. McNab had occupied a precarious position on the mast, and later swam round with difficulty to mount the hull, but the extra weight forced it down, so he returned to the mast, hooking his toes in the submerged stays, and treading water. About two hours later Hughes collapsed. Ho was clinging to the gaffi and others had noticed him getting drowsy. McNab shook him up several times, and Robertson kept shouting at him. "I hope it won't be long now" was his final remark as he drifted away. Later Scully appeared to be suffering from the effects of his gallant rescue, and Davis and Bell's brother joined them about 4 a.m., having left his position on the mast. • Scully said he would move round to the mast, as it appeared the most likely place for a holding. 801 l had a desperate job to regain his grasp, and when he looked again Scully had gone. With the approach of dawn the three survivors fought their sleeplessness by constantly shouting at one another, and by frequent changes of position. About half an hour after "daybreak a boat appeared and the survivors attracted the attention of tho occupants. The seas were s,till running high and it was with great difficulty i that the three men made their way alon X the rope that was made fast to their i stricken., craft. McNab was the baby iof the ere;v and he insisted that he should bo the last to be rescued.