ICY FIVE-MILE SWIM

Evening Star, Issue 25674, 24 December 1945, Page 7

ICY FIVE-MILE SWIM

SAILOR’S ATTEMPT TO REACH WIFE HARROW ESCAPE FROM DEATH LONDON, December 23. Herbert Lamoureux, an American sailor, who jumped overboard from a ship in Plymouth Sound yesterday in an endeavour to swim five miles to the shore to see his English wife and child, nearly perished in the icy water and ended up by being promptly placed on another ship returning to America without seeing, them. Lamoureux, formerly a sergeant m the American forces, married an English girl during the war. _ He was returned home for demobilisation, and his wife was unable to secure a passage to join him. Lamoureux applied for a visa to return to England, but was refused. He then signed on a liner as a messman, hoping the vessel would dock at Liverpool, where his wife and baby are living, but it went to Plymouth, where he unsuccessfully tried to go ashore, posing as a disembarking passenger. , . ■ Soon afterwards the liner left for Le Havre, and Lamoureux dived over-

board and struggled, fully dressed, in icy water to swim five miles to the shore. Almost exhausted, he managed to clamber bn the rocks near the lighthouse, where his cries for help brought rescuers. The immigration officials in Plymouth were sympathetic, but adamant that he could not remain m England without a visa. The police 10 hours later deposited the vehemently protesting Lamourex aboard another liner returning to America.