FIGHT FOR LIFE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXVI, Issue 40, 17 February 1902, Page 4

FIGHT FOR LIFE.

TERRIBLE NIGHT ADVENTURE

IN THE MERSEY.

One of the most thrilling stories of a fight, for life against the fury of wind and sea is that of the two survivors of the Southport boating disaster, who struggled ashore exhausted in the early hours of a Tuesday inormngslast month.

During a gale on the previous Monday night four men left a French vessel in the Mersey in a small sailing boat and atteaipted to make for the shore. They were "Professor" Lloyd, the well known and intrepid diver, a, Customs oflicer named Norman, and two others named Bromley and Cummings. It was a desperate venture, and came to a dramatic end.

The tiny craft was very soon dismasted by the gale, and then the four men were faced with the tremendous task of pulling to the shore in the teeth of the gate, with the alternative of being swept out to sea and swamped by the raging waves. Hour after hour they pulled for their lives, but the shore they could never make, and at length the exposure and hopeless toil overcame Lloyd and Norman, who sank unconscious in the boat.

Cummings and Bromley continued pulling until the boat grounded on a sandbank. They then determined to plunge into the water and see if they could wade to the shore. Lights were visible through tha darkness, and they set out on their perilous way. But they had not gone far from tho boat when they sank in deep water and were nearly drowned. Again and again they fought their way through the waves, and again and again they were baffled, for deep water surrounded the bank.

Their position suddenly became still more perilous, for they lost sight of the boat, where their dying companions lay, and tlxey then had no hope save to fight their way to the shore. It was a terrible experience, and only the dim lights in the distance guided them. In desperation they sought again a passage to the shore, and, half-dead from the cold and exhaustion, they at length succeeded, and reached the dry land. Ifc was thon 6 o'clock in the morning, and all niffht they'had been fighting the desperate battle for life.

The boat has been washed up on the shore, and from jits appearance it was obvious that it had never been capsized.

It is believed that Lloyd and Norman also made an attempt to walk to the shore, but all hope of again seeing them has been abandoned.

Among the many sensational things that Lloyd will be remembered by is his dive from London Bridge, attired in all his clothes, on October 18th, 1899. Twice he dived from moving trains on the Liverpool Overhead Railway, and once from the Lancaster Aqueduct Bridge, 80ft high, into 6ft of water, after three deaths had oc curred in attempting the same feat.