GALLANT RESCUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 13

GALLANT RESCUE

A NIGHT ADVENTURE

CAPSIZE INTO THE.OCEAN

SEAMAN SAVES THREE LIVES

(By Telegraph—Fr«»; Association.)

AUCKLAND, This Day.

A dinghy in which two passengers were being landed at Ponui Island capsized early yesterday morning. A seaman, J. Robertson, whose home is at JMorthcote, dived overboard and assisted the two passengers and a young man who had been rowing them, to reach a ladder that was dropped down the side of the steamer.

The passengers, Mr. and Mrs. R. Freeland, of Mount Eden, intending to spend a holiday on the island, left Auckland on the Hauiti yesterday morning,- but it was too rough to land at Ponui Island, so they went on to Thames, the steamer calling at the island on its return. About 3 o'clock this morning a dinghy manned by a youth put out in a nasty sea, the ebb tide causing a bad rip. He had hardly left the ship's side before the dinghy capsized, throwing the three occupants into the bitterly cold water. It was pitch dark. Robertson, who was at the wheel of the steamer, dived fully clad to the rescue. Ropes were thrown from the steamer and Robertson assisted the three drenched people up the ladder. They were warmed at the galley fire and supplied with dry clothes. The ship's boat landed the yV-tth on the island and the Freelands returned to Auckland, having lost their personal belongings. Search for the dinghy proved fruitless. ■