" MAN THE LIFEBOAT!"

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13948, 2 January 1909, Page 5

" MAN THE LIFEBOAT!"

A SUMNER RESCUE.

MAN'S PERILOUS EXPERIENCE.

[BY TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.]

•CHRisTcmjRCHj Friday. Great excitement was created in Sumner this afternoon when the Cave Rock sounded the lifeboat alarm. ' There was a large crowd of- holiday-makers on the beach, and there was immediately a rush to the Cave Rock to find out the cause of the . alarm. It was discovered that a man was standing on a rock at Whitewash Head, surrounded by water. As it happened, most of the members of the regular crew of the lifeboat were away holidaymaking, but the boat was quickly manned by those members of the crew who had remained in Sumner for the day and by other men who volunteered their services. There was a very rough sea on, and the task of getting across the bar was especially difficult. The boat got safely over, v ut had then to surmount very high croakers, and to face a very boisterous anu high sea. Unfortunately, one of the volunteeer members of the crew unshipped his rowlock, and with the handicap of one oar lost the work of the party was rendered the more arduous. After a hard pull of close upon one hour Whitewash Head was reached, the progress of the rescuing party being watched with great excitement by those on the beach. The man on the rock was discovered to be Mr. T. Dacre, a resident of Sumner. He went out fishing in the morning, and was. left by a fisherman's boat on an outlying rock, about a chain and a-half from the mainland, the fisherman's crew intending to return for him in the afternoon, which they did, but owing to the roughness of the sea could not reach him. When his plight became known the alarm for the lifeboat was sounded, and it succeeded in rescuing him from his perilous position.