GALLANT SAILOR'S REWARD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 19 March 1913, Page 6

GALLANT SAILOR'S REWARD

CHEQUES FROM LLOYDS. {t'BJSSa ASSOCIATION. COPYRIGHT.) {Received March 19, 9 a.m.) LONDON, March 18. Lloyd's presented Captain Bidwell, of the steamer Naming, with a, gold watch and a cheque for £3os the first ofiicer with a cheque for £125, and the boatswain with a cheque for £SO. (The P. and O. steamer Narrung hac a perilous time\in the Bay of Biscay or Boxing Day, and an extremely narrov escape from foundering. The vessel which had 248 passengers for the Cap* and Australia, left London on Januarx 24th, and on Boxing Day was all bu: overwhelmed h-y a tremendous sea in th Bay. Captain R. Bidwell decided tha it was necessary' to return, and succeed ed in bringing his ship to anchor ofi Gravesend about 7 o'clock on the SatuiV day morning. Most of the passenger were emigrants, many of them young wo men going to Australia. Some of then _ were in a sorry plight." . Families ha< .lost all their luggage, and women whi were in their bunks when the sea wa at its worst were left with nothing bu their night attire. " THE CAPTAIN'S NARRATIVE. Captain Bidwell, in the course of ai interview, said : .... "Then n the early afternoon a mountainous wav« struck us. I had never seen anything like it before. It simply swamped th whole ship,- burying her forward alto gether and wrecked all the tackle ii front of the mast. It flooded all th< passengers' accommodation there, carried-: away the winches, and,broke in through the hold. Women and children were quartered in the flooded cabins. It tore lip the iron deck, turning it back lik< . brown paper. Not for some time couh we see from the bridge what the damage amounted to, but I quickly realised that there was no possibility of going or through it." The only thing was to gel her round before another'such sea struck her. If she had taken another it- would - have been all up with .us." "Turninjj Tound in the teeth of the jreile was a very anxious time, and. I. told the Marconi operator to sisrnal fo* assistance. He sent the "5.0.5." message and soon obtained responses frorr several quarters. He got into communi cation with Brest, and the French Go vernment promptly replied saying that they were willing to send us a gunboat if it were required. As soon as I founc we ccnld run her I sent another messagr all round saying that we were under control. It was impossible to get forward to see what the damare amounted to nn- ■ til we had got the ship round. It took an hour and 20 minutes to get round, and we were Tunning four or five hours more before we were out of danger.")