BOY'S EXCITING EXPERIENCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 19 February 1916, Page 7

BOY'S EXCITING EXPERIENCE.

OVERBOARD IN A CYCLONE

A true "shark story" was told to an Auckland Star reporter by a young lad named Charlie Hand, who lives at Devonport. He had just returned from a long sea voyage m a vessel well known in Auckland harbor. The boy, who is the central figure in the story, liad, during a recent cyclone in the tropics, an escape from drowning, which was .described by. the crew of the vessel as being miraculous. The lad stated that on a recent..Sunday morning, the ship was making' the voyage from Fanning Island to Suva. During the earlier hours, a shark had been sighted at the stern of the vessel. It was •exceptionally large even for the species -which' frequent tropical waters. One of the. crew remarked that it was a thing of ill omen for the shark to follow the vessel so-closely, but the men passed the matter by lightly, little thinking that within an -hour one of them would be fighting for his life against a merciless; sea and a fear of the "following shark. A short time after this, a storm sprang up. The sea was aggravated to mountainous waves, which swept the .decks of the vessel and threatened to carry ajl .before them. The lad said . that the.wav.es walled the vessel in, and . the .sky ..was as blacl? as ink. The rain -—sometimes . frozen into haiWbeat down upon the. vessel in sheets, and the wind -howled above the sounds of the .falling rain and,the breaking waves. The boy was.on the foredeck, and decided ;to, seek sheßer owing to the > violence ; of , the. storm. He turned to , make for the forecastle when he saw a huge ..wave^aboy't to : ,break over the bo.ws. ..He. ran for ..shelter, but was too late. He was:. caught in the on■cojaing.mass, of water, and hurled into the .air until he finally fell into the ■sea. He .describes the., shock as being so sudden and so terrible as to have ! left; no ..memory with Jiim. of the exact way in which he reached the water. It seemed an age to him before he came to ■, the;-;surface," ; but when at last he could r»ee .thebla-ck. sky abovej he cried for .help. The wave had thrown him some .distance from the ship, but his position ;-w.as ; 'discovered, a buoy was thrown :t*>,liiin, arid preparations were made for "lftw_enng a boat. The buoy landed with■ing.a.:shprt distance of the lad, but he was -.unable .to reach it for some min«&ss. jEach : time • that he. struck out for the lifebelt he. was flung back by ihe waves, and if it were not for the f&fifc .tliai ;he .was a.-strong swimmer he prdbably .would not 'have been saved. By hard .sjyimining lie came nearer to tho buoy, and was at last able to grab the fincirclißjg.cord,"auil to rest, as. he was almost'exhausted. For about, an hour 'lie waited. The ek-*ments deadened all sounds • «'liieh would' have perhaps helped t:he searching boat to find hiw.;. Difiieult-y found laurehintr tlie host., a-ncl -fh& fittings f.vere badly damaged hy $he.^a.

The searchers were almost in touch with the exhausted boy -when, a wave rose between and 'bid the rescuers from the lad's vife-w..

He said that when he caught tie lifebeU he suddenlj remeiit'&ered the*hark -\~hieh had been following the boat, and realised that it might stnll be near by. This prompteel him to lie across the biM*;?, instead' of passing it over "Ks Jiodv. The light, which flashes whets the 'Wit touches the water, 'burned his legs, $$\({ he had to loosen it and hold ft away, at the some time battling with the eea, .which threatened to separate him from the sustaining buoy.

When- th* boat -missed him* the first time, it t»s some minutes before he again saw #te anxious faces of the searchers, to yhom he was finally able to swim. The young fellow said that by this time he was almost dazed by the hour's battling, but he was able to scramble aboarS the surf boat and to finally reach the"' Reamer. The vessel went on its way.- -£he cyclone contiininff to drive the gin't^t- waves against her sides.

Thp lad seems to have' been enrsidernblv imnrcssed by the sha-. vk which preceded Ivs adventure, and seems temp+p't to believe the old sea wprning that a follow hi k shark means .»ad lack.