UNABLE TO SWIM

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 30, 5 February 1935, Page 3

UNABLE TO SWIM

A FOURTH ESCAPE

Although unable to swim a stroke, Mr. John Dove, once of Christchurch, had his fourth" escape from death by drowning on January 20 when the British cargo -steamet Kenkerry was wrecked oh the coast of Nova Scotia, states the "Christchurch' Star.',' , With the ship ashore in a blinding snowstorm, the crew were dragged to safety along a breeches line until only the master, Captain Duncan Milne, and the chief engineer, Mr. Dove, were left aboard. Then the vessel broke in two. Captain Mime ordered Mr. Dove ashore and fastened him into the buoy. With a nerve-wracking roar, the vessel broke up and.fell into pieces in the boiling sea. Mr ; Dove was hurled into the water and the skipper;vanished under the tremendous waves. > Villagers on the shore hauled on the breeches line and, almost drowned, Mr. Dove was dragged to safety. . Mr. Dove served ' his time as an engineer in Christchurch, and was later employed as an engineer at the freezing works .at Belfast. He left there to go to sea to get his chief engineer's ticket, and' was on his way. back to New Zealand when the war broke -out. . Three times during the war, ships in which he was serving were torpedoed, and on more than one occasion he was fortunate to escape with his life, for the engine-room of a ship is not the ,easiest place to leave in a hurry, especially when it is the chief engineer's responsibility to get the others out first.