A NARROW ESCAPE.

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 3340, 8 September 1917, Page 4

A NARROW ESCAPE.

ACT OF PROVIDEiNOE,

SAVES A SHIP'S GREW

An instance of what might bo described as all intervention of Providonce- was related in Masterton last week by a man who was recently-; employed as a trimmer on a deep-sea boat.

Not long ago the man—who, by the way, is unfit for military service owing to having undergone an operation to his side —was engaged on a boat carrying wheat from. America to Italy. Several of the boats in this trade had been blown up by infernal machines, and great precautions were taken to prevent these machines being placed on board. On the particular boat under notice several detectives kept vigil during the loading operations, and it was thought when the boat sailed he was free from anything in the way of explosives. Shortly after leaving the American port the boat struck a reef, and an inruch of water compelled the captain to put into port. When tho wheat was removed from the hold a caso over four feet long was discovered, [n this case were five colls containing high explosives, and connected with clockwork, which would havo caused an explosion 3 but for the fact that the water had poured into the hold and stopped the action of the deadly contrivanceHow the machinery was put on board is a mystery, but the crew realised the extremely narrow oscapo they had from being blown to eternity.