LAUNCH IN DANGER

Evening Star, Issue 22069, 1 July 1935, Page 12

LAUNCH IN DANGER

NIGHT SPENT GN HARBOUR GREW RESCUED THIS MORNING

With the engine out of commission and the largo waves of a gale-swept harbour tossing their small pleasure craft about like a cork, three young men—Messrs A. C. Melville, R. •C. Dobson, and W. C. Sheppherd—spent an anxious and perilous night after the engine of the Imp broke down yesterday afternoon while they were beating up tho launch channel near Waverley. Throughout their enforced stay on the lmp,_ whose name certainly coincided with her behaviour, the crew were drenched and hungry, without even a cigarette to ease strained nerves. The men were' rescued from their plight at 11.45 this morning, bitterly cold and very tired.

Fears for the safety of the crew were first entertained late last night, and realised early this morning when it was found that the men had not returned to Dunedin. The harbourmaster was communicated with and a launch sent out at 8.30 a.m., but tho Imp could not be sighted._ It was throe members of the ‘ Evening Star * staff who first made contact with the distressed craft, which was seen crazily pitching in the trough of an ugly chop more than half a mile from tho _ shore, opposite Johnson’s wharf. While the crew were attempting to make the engine function the previous day the Imp had been allowed to drift for two miles, and when all hope of making Dunedin failed ,it was decided to anchor. Then came real discomfort in tho increasing westerly gale._ There was at least one compensation—the quarters of the cabin, cramped though they were, afforded some shelter from the wind, though not from chilling cold. “ Our hands were so numbed that we could not lift the * hook,’ ” said one of,the men of their attempt

at 7.30 p.m, to weigh anchor and allow the Imp to drift as near the shore as possible. And it was providential that their efforts to weigh anchor were unsuccessful, for the craft would _ to'all purposes have been unnavigable in such shifty seas. The anchor held fast, but at times the bow of the launch was engulfed in line after line of rollers. Communication with the shore by means of petrol-soaked flares was out of the question. The one box _ of matches had been expended for light to examine tho engine. Throughout the night motor cars passed along the Lower Portohello road ignorant of the drama that was being enacted only a mile off-shore. None of the crew of tho Imp (which had gone from Dunedin to Macandrew Bay that afternoon to tow Mr W. Hopkin’s Minnow off the beach) had any previous experience of power-driven craft, though Mr Melville, a well-known # local yachtsman, had at least experienced being adrift for a night before, two years ago at Moeraki.

Semaphore signalling by means of handkerchiefs enabled a member of the ‘ Star ’ staff to ascertain that the crew were at least safe, and once this information was established arrangements were quickly put in train to effect a rescue. Mr \V, Rowlands, of the Macandrew Bay store, was communicated with, and his launch, the Stella, and a crew of six, including Mr N. Doig, sped towards the distressed _ Imp two miles up the harbour. Coming alongside entailed some risk, and the rescue boat herself was lucky to escape becoming in turn the rescued, for when to leeward of the Imp the roll of one craft nearly resulted in the other capsizing. A line was passed aboard to a miserable crew, and the disabled launch was towed to safe moorings at Macaudrew Bay, though not before food and brandy had been transferred to them. The three men, except for suffering slightly from exposure and hunger, were safe, though their experience was one that might easily have ended in tragedy.