FALL OF TWENTY FEET.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20367, 23 September 1929, Page 12

FALL OF TWENTY FEET.

FIVE MEN ESCAPE DEATH.

DIFFICULT RESCUE WORK.

Five men working in the hold of the steamer Iron Monarch, lying at North Stockton, says a recent message from Newcastle, Now South Wales, had a remarkable escapo from death when the support of the tank on which they were standing gave way, causing them to fall 20ft. to the bottom of the hold. All were injured, and taken Newcastle Hospital. None was in a critical condition. , , .. Tho men, who nro members of tho Dockers and Painters' Union, were engaged chipping the walls of tho hold. To the tune of tho chipping a lively conversation was being carried on, and with many other companions they wero a happy band. . . , „ " There was no warning whatever, said ono of tho injured men. " One minute wo wero working, and the nest we scorned to bo thrown into what I thought would bo eternity." Another of tho injured men said that, the first ho knew that there was anything wrong was the falling away of the plank, and ho made a dive through the air for tho side of tho ship. There ho hung on to something. Ho seomed at a loss to know just what it was, but ho hung there until ho could hold no longer. Then ho let go and his rib was injured through tho fall. " I could not do such a dive again in a hundred tries," he said. . Askod if thero was any sound of splintering of wood, tho men are all of tho opinion that the supports simply gave way under tho weight. Other men working' in the hold wero amazed to see thfi men being flung from a hfeight, and stood aghast, never for a moment imagining that they could fall without being smashed to pieces. To get tho injured men over tho side of tho ship was not an easy matter. Strapped to stretchors, the men were carofully lifted to tho top of the gangway and were steadied on the shoulders of their comrades down tho steep incline of tho gangway, to tho waiting ambulance cars. Tho crowd that gathered was dumb, founded at the mannor in which tho men were brought over the side and many held their breath as the stretcher was balanced on tho shoulders of men whose footing had to be very sure.