FIVE HOURS IN WATER

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 4 May 1923, Page 4

FIVE HOURS IN WATER

[l GIRL'S TERRIBLE ORDEAL. Details of the boating fatality on [ Lake Waikare, involving the death by drowning of a young man named John \. ' Brady, shQi? that the accident came ; very close to being a double tragedy : ; (states the New Zealand Herald). An ' extraordinary feature of the occurrence" was the escape of the 17-year-old daughter of Mr A. Skinner after a terrible ordeal extending over a period of 5} hours. Mr Brady was a railway fireman, aged 21 years, and bad come from Taihapo to spend a short holiday with Mr Skinner at his farm on Shepherd's Is- ; 'land, which is separated from --"jtlwPV _ mainland by & lagoon. At 9.30 km. "' ; on Monday Miss Brady and Mr Skinner left the farm in a flat-bottomed punt to go- to Rangiriri for provisions. The" surface of the lake was mild, but when the boat was about a mile from the shore a squall arose and the punt was swamped, throwing the two occupants into the water. They managed " to turn the boat over, and held on until it again sank. Mr Brady, who wa» a good swimmer, was then seized with '" cramp. He called out to the girl, "Oh Irene, I'm g\rae," and then sank. Miss Brady was not a good swimmer, and was completely unnerved By this experience. She managed, however. •s«> . keep afloat, and drifted with the wind for over four hours before she found herself close to land. Then came another ordeal in being compelled to wade through the lagoon waist deep for about a mile before BJhe eventually struggled to the house on the island. Her efforts called for extreme physical endurance, and she was completely exhausted and scarcely able to walk when she reached home at 3 p.m. From the time the two left the house until the return of the girl unaccompanied a period of 5\ hours had elapsed, about five of which the girl had been in the water.