DANGEROUS BACKWASH

Evening Star, Issue 21319, 25 January 1933, Page 12

DANGEROUS BACKWASH

TWO Met! DSOSKED [Per United Press Association.] GREYMOUTH, January 24. A double surfing fatality occurred at 4 o’clock this afternoon at Blaketown Beach, to the south of the harbour entrance, the scene of previous tragedies. The victims were Eleas Nordstrom, twenty-four years of age, and Charles Kerr M'Anulty, twenty-seven years of age. Both were residents of Greymouth, and botli were officers of the local unemployed organisation. They were poor swimmers, and waded out over waist deep, there being thirty others also surfing in the vicinity, who state that the backwash at the time was exceptional. The tide was making, and M'Anulty and Nordstrom were carried beyond their depths, valiant efforts to save them failing. All Iho sliders experienced difficulty in the exceptional backwash, and, although one, ivau James Curin, managed to grasp M‘Anulty, the latter’s struggles, combined with the under-tow, forced the other to release him after bringing him 6yds towards the shore. Curin called to Nordstrom to help him, but the other was in a bad way himself, and soon disappeared, Curin returning to shore with difficulty. Another surfer, Patrick Blanchfield, made an effort to reach the victims, but as they were then drifting rapidly, he was obliged to seek his own safety. Three attempts with the aid of the life-line were made from the shore by William Smith, Michael Gordon, Frank Moss, and Peter Affleck, to effect a rescue, but the reel broke during the first two attempts. The third effort extended the full length of iho line, 400 ft, but the victims had then disappeared. Up till 10 p.m., high water, there was no sign of the bodies. Nordstrom was a native of Northumberland, and leaves a wife and daughter aged two. He has also a at Dobson, and his mother lives in England.

M'Anulty was a native of Blantyrc, Scotland, and leaves a widowed sister at Grevmouth, a brother, Andrew, at Christchurch, and four married sisters at Blantyre. Both men were formerly Dobson miners.