ARDUOUS TASK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 14 September 1909, Page 1

ARDUOUS TASK.

; Some! hilly had In lie ilnni; In es- , ;:i!>l>h eoimnuniration between tho ;!ii[i and the shore, and an Italian islicniKui naiiir-:! M<>«u>ns, one of the irst lo arrive at the scene of the vieck, volunteered to approach as ■lose :is he could to the stern of the .-essol, the part pointing inshore, and bring back a line. He fought his way out against the billows, clauiberMig from rock to rock, until he had reached as far as it was possible to ■;o. A Jighf wire line was lhrowu| to him from tho ship, aud he repeatad his perilous journey back again, bringing the line with him. A heavy hawser was then .attached to the line, and was pulled on shore, one >nd being fastened to the ship and, :he other tb a large rock. A loop was slipped around the hawser, and in the loop the men travelled from. Hie ship to the shore. The middle ■ ■inrt of the hawser sagged in the breakers, and the efforts of the men o pull themselves from the lowest >art of the sag up the hawser to the ihoro end were almost superhuman. n liere was only one light line available, and that was used for hauling :he loop back to the wreck: tho nen on the ship had to work their vay along the hawser, bringing the line with them. Several men were ■pscued in this way, and when a seanan named Gladman, who had been 'langing on the crosstrees of tho foremost since the vessel struck, essayed to swim ashore. Loud cries from the shore warned him to desist, nit he either did not hear or took no! lotioe. Ho plunged into the fran-j 'ie sea and was engulfed. The numbers on the shore had meanwhile in- 1 ercased. The hawser was lengthened, and tho end fastened higher up Ihe cliffs to raise the sag above the water level. Tho change, however,, involved the use of a knot in the Uawser, and that knot proved fatal v the first man over. The man, At-' ridge, a greaser, slid down the haw-j cr until he reached the knot. There ip stuck, and became the plaything >f tlw waves. He disengaged him-' elf from the loof, and clutched aj ; ne thrown out to him. He battled: 'jravely for a time, and then the line .vaa hauled in slack. He was seen next by a big rock, presumably safe, ile raised his hand, and a man on the ciek stretched out to grasp ir. Twe-ve inches separated the two '.mills. They might have been twelve miles. A backwash swept Attride out of reach, and he was notj -oon again. Operations then ceased! for the time being, but the arrival of a party of soldiers with a rocket and lit'o-liiie apparatus enabled those re■nnining on the wreck to be rescued early the next day.