SURFING DISASTER

Grey River Argus, 15 February 1938, Page 5

SURFING DISASTER

On Bondi Beach ANOTHER BODY FOUND. (Received February 14, 11.40 p.m.) SYDNEY, February 14. The body of a man, washed up in the Bondi surf last Friday, has been identified as that of Michael Taylor, who was the fifth victim of the surf tragedy last Sunday week. SYDNEY, February 4. With 200 panic-stricken bathers, caught in a terrific undertow, clawing, hitting and grabbing each other in their frenzied efforts to save their lives, four men were drowned, fears are held that more were drowned, others were resuscitated after they were feared dead, and 30 more lost consciousness before they were rescued at Bondi yesterday afternoon in the worst surfing tragedy on record. A Surry Hills man and a wharf labourer from Darlinghurst are missing. In the seething water about 50 yards from the shore life.savers affected the most heroic mass rescue in memory, while thousands on the beach held spellbound by the tragic drama being enacted before their eyes, watched. Some lifesavers were almost strangled or dragged under to their death while saving struggling men, women and children. One lifesaver rendered unconscious with a blow one man who was almost strangling him in his frenzy, and then carried him ashore. Another man, Carl Sauer, was drowned while saving a girl. Those drowned were:— Ronald McGregor, 21, Mechanic, of Ramsgate Avenue, Bondi. Bernard Francis Byrne, 34, married, of Park Avenue, Earlwood. Carl Lenhart Sauer, 53, single, a ' native of Germany, of William St. City. Leslie Potter, a young man. of Waratah Avenue, Bondi Feared drowned Michael Taylor, 47, of Goodchap Street. Surry Hills, Disappeared while surfing. Not yet found. J. Kennedy, wharf labourer, of

Bondi. Seen going towards surf just before tragedy. Clothing found in surf sheds.

Those who were feared dead, but who were resuscitated, were:— James Mooney, 30, of Railway Petersham. >

Leonard Mitchell, 27, of Hamilton Street, Rose Bay (admitted St. Vinment’s Hospital). Harry Hoare, 43, of Darling Street, Balmain.

Ernest Coran, 32, of Evans Street, Balmain.

Ernest Coran, 32, of Evans Street, Rozelle.

Ross Smith, 17, of Bourke Street, Darlinghurst. Harry Freer, 28, of Bondi.

Fears that other bathers, unnoticed during the pandemonium, were drowned were heightened last night with the discovery of two lots of unclaimed clothing in the surf sheds.

When, this edition went to press police were trying to trace two persons who had not returned home from the surf. They fear that this pair owned the clothing found in the surf sheds and that they were drowned in the confusion.

Many inquiries were made during the night by residents as to whether their relatives, who had not return ed home, were among the list of victims. These inquiries will be thoroughly investigated by police to-day, as will be the case of the unclaimed clothing.

It was Caral Sauer who was drowned when rescuing the girl. Sne disappeared under the water and he grabbed the hair of her head and held her up. A lifesaver was further out with a lifeline, which Sauer gripped. It was twisted around his wrist, biting into the flesh.

When the lifesaver with the line came towards the shore with two-dis-tressed surfers he took hold of Sauer who was still clinging to the line.

When the shore was reached Sauer was dead. The girl recovered. Sauer’s body was identified last night at the city morgue by Det. Richards, of Darlinghurst. The 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. surf patrol had just commenced its duties when the tragedy happened with startling suddenness.

Waves some 20ft high were bursting towards the beach, leaving a foam-bedecked waterway. Then there was freakish calm, followed soon after Wards by two or three waves combining together and pounding towards the shore.

The comber receded, making a terrific undertow, which left a milling maelstrom of humanity fighting to keep afloat and not be carried out. Despairing cries for help, heads disappearing under the surface, and arms uplifted in a mute appeal for rescue soon had 40 to 60 lifesavers from both Bondi and North Bondi clubs plunging into the surf on a mission that meant Ife or death for hundreds. Skis, surfplanes and lifelines were taken out with incredible speed. A surfboat followed, but was useless in the boiling water. Arthur Elm was the first in. He took hold of several drowning bathers and took them ashore. Clem Walsh meanwhile, had gone to the rescue. Both saved about 25 adults and youngsters.

Ashur Hart, on a surf ski, was in the forefront of the rescue. Among other rescuers were Allan Rennix, Jim Duley, W. Butler, J. Keene, E. Nitchell, G. Cohen and K. Barnes. Spectators, against whom complaints were made by the rescuers, hampeied the lifesavers by clustering around the fringe of the water and hindering their progress. Six officers in three waggons from Eastern Suburbs Ambulance went to the scene and found more than 20 persons lying unconscious along the beach with the surf clubmen reviving faint flickers of life. Others had been carried to the clubhouse. At the helm of the resuscitation work were Dr. Marshall Dyer, a visitor from America for the Anniversary Celebrations, and three local medical men, Drs. Ping, Hardy and McKellar. Oxygen was administered to the dead and almost-dead.

The youth Smith was unconscious for 90 minutes. It appeared that he, besides Mooney, Mitchell, Coran and Smith, was dead. They were black in the face. There were other indications that their lives were extinct, and it seem miraculous that, they were revived. Every method known to modern science was used on the other four men in efforts to save their lives, but all to no avail.

When he recovered, Harry Hoare. for whose life hopes had been almost abandoned, said:— “It was terrible. Everybody went mad. They lost their heads. I can swim and could have got ashore, but one drowning man, in his desperation, put his hands around my throat and almost strangled me. Then I was under water. Everything went black, and I didn’t remember anything more for over an hour.”

Ernest Coran, another whose escape was little short of a miracle, stated: “I don’t remember anything about it. Everything went black to me in a moment. I can’t swim. 1 don’t think I will go surfing again I don’t feel like my evening meal tonight.” Ross Smith, the youth, who was unconscious for 90 minutes, said: ‘‘They tell me I was black in the face, and didn’t have an earthly chance of pulling through; but I’m still here." When leaving, Smith clasped the hand of his rescuer, Arthur Elm, and said, “Thanks, fellah.” “It’s all in a day’s work ” Elm replied. “The lifesavers were luckv they were not drowned themselves by the panicky bathers,” said Arthur 41m. “At one stage I had a girl clinging to my throat, a boy gripped me around the waist, and a man held my legs. I had to k’o’ the man when he grabbed me by the throat. I got the three of them in.” Clem Walsh had a similar experience. “We were the central target of the crowd of drowning people.” Clem Walsh recalled. “As soon as we dived in the water they grabbed us, they were hysterical. ‘Save me!’ ‘Grab me!’ they cried. Someone said that one of the young chaps who was drowned had been married six weeks ago ” The parents of Leslie Potter are touring the State in a car. the number of which is 177,830. Police are anxious for any person seeing the car to inform its occupants of their son’s death. Squads of police, headed by SuptAllen. Insps. Tindall and Lendrum. and Sergts. Twiss, Rolfe, Chuck and Gorman, investigated. “It was Bond’s ‘Black Sunday.’ ” gasped out patrol captain Carl Jeppesen to a “Labour Daily” representative late yesterday afternoon. “This is the biggest fatality list ever experienced at Bondi, and in 30. years it is the first time that a life has ever been lost here while the surf life-

saving patrols were actually on duty. “Like a bolt from the blue, at 3.15 p.m., we were confronted with an amazing situation, wßen, in a second, over 200 surfers were seen to be in distress. Many lost their heads and claimed each other madly. “It was like the tragic scene that follows a big shipwreck on the films. Hands of bathers in distress were thrown up everywhere in a despairing appeal for help. “Only a stroke of luck prevented the tragedy from becoming even more serious. By good fortune, 40 members of the lifesaving club were about to plunge into the water in a competitive official club race when the alarm was given. They quickly plunged into the heavy seas to the rescue. "At the time there were 60 club lifesavers, clad in costumes, on the beach, an dthey were faced with a beach, and they were faced with a at once. “The trouble was that everybodv got out of their depth at once—there were men, women, youths, girls and children appealing for help as they were being swept out- Mass rescue was called for.