SWEPT TO SEA

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 37, 14 February 1938, Page 8

SWEPT TO SEA

BONDI TRAGEDY

MAGNIFICENT RESCUE WORK

HEROIC SWIMMERS

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

SYDNEY, February 1.

The worst surf-bathing tragedy known in Australia resulted in the loss of several lives off Bondi Beach, Sydney, yesterday, when two hundred persons were swept to sea by the backwash of huge seas. Four bodies were recovered and a fifth is missing.

Nearly seventy rescuers did magnificent work in bringing the helpless swimmers to safety. They used belts and lines, surf boats, surt skis, and even rubber floats, and many swam out into the raging surf without any equipment to succour drowning people. Panic among the persons to danger increased the hazards of the rescuers,' and some of them had to fignt for their lives with men who seized them and in frenzied struggles dragged them: down.

The trouble was caused Dy severe backwash after unusually heavy seas. The foremost of the hundreds of bathers were on a. sandbank between the beach and the channel. They were in broken water, but the waves had lost their violence and the bathers appeared to be in uo real danger. Suddenly four huge waves, far greater than any Sefore, thundered shorewards in rapid succession. The combers appeared to cut away a large section of the sandbank, and the two hundred bathers who a second'before had been standing on firm sand were left helplessly floundering in deep < water. The strong outward current gripped them and they were filing together as if iv a vortex. Panic spread and developed almost into mass" hysteria. Lifesavers said, afterwards that, whereas nearly all the women rescued remained calm, men screamed and begged to be, rescued. A FORTUNATE CIRCUMSTANCE. The tragedy would have been far worse if the Bondi Surf Life-saving Club's teams had not been practising and other members assembled for races. Thus there was a full force oi trained lifesavers" present. In quick time eight life-lines were 'out. But the lines were too slow for mass rescue. They were1 even a menace, for they became entangled round the people, who clutched them wildly. An overwilling crowd of onlookers aggravated the position by hauling inexpertly on the lines, half-drowning those at the other end. Strong swimmers among the crowd helped the life-savers...

One who carried out many rescues was Miss Ena Stockley, former New Zealand swimming champion. She was among .those swept out, and immediately went to the assistance of a child who was in difficulties. She brought others ashore,- then on returning was seized by the wrist by an elderly man. Miss Stockley was almost drowned before she broke the man's grip, then, seizing him round the waist, she supported him until a life-saver came to her aid. The man was one of those who failed to revive.

I There were poignant scenesoopnp the beach as bathers were brought ashore, many of them Unconscious'. There were no means 'of identifying thsm, and hundreds of people, fearing that friends or relatives were among those in danger, were' frantic with anxiety. The work of artificial respiration was carried on almost \ without cessation, doctors who had been summoned from among the crowd on the beach and from their homes giving injections.and administering oxygen when this was necessary. YOUNG WIFE'S DISTRESS. ,- The most pathetic scene was when the six-months bride of Ronald McGregor, 21, one of the'drowned, recognised him: as he lay senseless on the, beach. Lifesavers had been working on the prostrate form for an hour, and a doctor had just given up hope for his life, when a girl in shorts darted through the crowd. ,She peered anxiously over the head.; of the lifesavers, recognised her husband, and gave a piercing scream. Mrs. McGregor had been sitting on the beach. Her husband had left her, saying he would rejoin her in about an hour. It was not until that time had elapsed that she started to seek her husband. The last place where she looked was the cleared patch of beach where the unavailing fight was'going on to save the lives of four unconscious men who had been brought ashore. s Carl Jeppeson, captain ol the Bondi Surf Club, was one of the chief rescuers, but when asked to give the 'names of men who had distinguished , themselves in the rescues, he said it I was impossibleto mention individuals, ■so many were the acts of heroism. ! "Everyone did his job," he said. "All , the members, of the club who were [on the beach went straight into the 1 water and swam towards the helpless 1 people. There wero at least two hundred persons in trouble at the same I time. But for the fact that there were ;so many, lifesavers on the beach many i more would have been drowned. There 'were eight lines out, but many of us : had to go in without a line. It is hard Ito look.back now on what it was like i out in that surf. They were sinking l, all round us. It was our 'Black Suni day.' The club has been in existence | for thirty years, and these are the first i deaths since we have had patrols on the beach." A LINESMAN'S STORE. One rescuer's ; experience was typical of many. Arthur Elm said that when he reached a group who were among those farthest from, the shore, five men seized him and refused to let turn go. "Some of these men seemed to go mad," he said. "I was trying to take the belt to a youngster who was right out, but I didn't get the chance. As I went by, dozens yelled for help and tried to grab me. I told them to hang on to the rope as soon as I nad got it out, but they didn't wait. They made for me. I didn't think I had a chance when they all came • at me. One grabbed me round the neck, two others caught me by an arm, another held me round the waist, and another one seized a leg. I hit the man who had me round the heck, I' got in on his chin, and he let go. t had to do it. But for that I would have drowned myself, and some of the others, too I know that scores of us went back to the beach on the line, but I can't remember much about that part of it."

"I have never seen, and i never expect to see again, such magnificent work as was done by those life-savers," said Dr. Marshall W. Dyer, an American visitor who was on the beach. "It is the most incredible work of love in the world! Just imagine all those men going into the water without a moment's hesitation, risking their 'lives, and all for love. It was a scene 1 shail never forget, and when I get, back to the United States I will tell them about your magnificent surf-men. There are no men like them in the world."