ADRIFT IN A DINGHY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18707, 13 May 1924, Page 11

ADRIFT IN A DINGHY

THE LYTTELTON ESCAI#. i ' f j •LITTLE GIRL'S BRAVERY, i I • ' ,• . , f SWIM IN AN ICY SEA. - TUG'S DIFFICULT TASK. . v.;..';'! ~. ' V- J ' fB7 TELEGRAPH.—OWN CORRESPONDENT) ; CHRISTCHURCH. Monday.-; Details of the adventure of; the five Bums; children, who were blown adrift in Lytteltori Harbour and were . eventually rescued by a tug,' , show : that the dinghy was blown where the gale was raging its fiercest. The eldest girl, Isabel, aged 13, struggled to keep the craft's head on to the breaking seas, but it took her all her time. The girl decided to try to make for the shelter of Adderley Head. : 1 - ' ; \ Taking an oar apiece she and Se eldest boy commenced the seemingly impossible task -of rowing in the teeth of the gale. Half, an hour's hard battling and the boat crept ink* the comparative shelter of the giant cliffs of Adderley Head close in to the shore. The anchor was dropped, buE although somewhat sheltered there was still a considerable sea running and the anchor threatened to drag. The two children therefore kepi working away with the oars. The boy's hands had become so numbed with the cold that encountering a heavy sea the oar was wrenched from his grasp and carried away. It was then that the girl Isabel committed an act of •exceptional bravery. There was plenty of rope in the boat and she decided to mafe a line fast to the rocks. The shore was'only about a hundred feet away, but it was 'a hundred feet of freezing!}- cold watier with tumbling waves and thick kelp and there was the added risk of being dashed upon the rocks themselves. A Game Struggle. Nothing daunted and willing to risk everything for the sake of s her little brothers and sisters, she stripped off her, stockings and tying a line round her waist, plunged overboard to swim ashore. Gamely she struggled but trie task proved too much. She regained the boat with the assistance of a particularly big wave after having hung on to the gunwale for a long time in an unsuccessful endeavour, to clamber on board. The scene when the tug reached the vicinity of the little boat is thus described by one of those who was on :—"The girl is working at the remaining oar gamely trying to get the boat out from the shore. The younger • children start, to scream out _ something but tho girl, intent on hearing orders from the tug, silences them. _ At last they are near enough. A line is thrown and falls fair across the dinghy. One of the boys tries to make it fast amidships, but realising the danger of the boat being capsized, a seaman yells to him to make it fast in the bow. There is some confusion among the children but the girl never ceases to work at the oaiy watching and manoeuvring the boat' over • every wave. y r ' " Man Overboard." ; • " Suddenly the tug swings round, and the dinghy is heaving and dipping alongside. All this is being carried out in tha midst of a blinding hailstorm. A . dec!if hand, J. Hardwick, drops into the dinghy and takes the line. Before he can make fast, however, the dinghy is swept astern by the force of the gale. The man hangs on grimly. The bow of the little craft dips dangerously. An extra large: sea strikes it, and "then Hardwick is pulled clean out of .the dinghy into the sea, while the ; children are adrift once more.: " 4 Man . overboard ' comes the cry, but the skipper has already taken in the situation, and stopped the It is just as well for the man is swept right under the stern of the tug alongside the ' propellers. Fortunately lie retains his hold of the line, and he is quickly drawn alongside, most of the passage being made under water. Then ' Heave all' and he is pulled up to the rail and scrambles j»hnard none theworse for hio . immer- . sion.^ , " Another approach is made to the dinghy. This* time two lines are thrown and the boyi make them fast to the forward thwart. The dinghy is. alongside once more, but in danger of " being swamped. The deck hands are manoeuvring the lines to avoid this. • * „ A Pitiful Sight. . " 4 Take my little brother,' screams the girl above the roar of the gale. By kneeling on the belting, ; one of »: those on board just manages to reach with one hand a frozen little arm- and hands the child up. Soon the children are all on board. A pitiful sight they present, hatless, and bootless. Their boots are washing about in the bottom of the dinghy. The two younger ones are blue and stupefied with the cold. The baby, two years of age, a chubby little urchin, has 'received a blow from the end of the oar, and his mouth is bleeding, but Isabel, a well-built girl, with a plump, freckled face, smiles in spite of her sodden clothes and chattering teeth. It is a smile of . relief and of knowledge of duty accomplished.'' f - i. ' J '