BEACH TRAGEDY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21948, 3 November 1934, Page 10

BEACH TRAGEDY

OFFICERS AND WIVES SWEPT FROM ROCKS ONLY ONE SURVIVOR SEARCHERS ENCOUNTER SHARKS [FBOJI Ol'R OWN COIIRKSPONDENTJ HOXOLITLU. Oct. 20 A beach -tragedy occurred tliis week near Honolulu, when two United States Army officers. Lieutenants .T. W. St ribling and AY. F. Stevenson, and tlieir wives were swept from a rock from which they were fishing. Before rescuers could reach them the officers and one of the women, Mrs. Stribling, were drowned. Mrs. Stevenson, the survivor, managed to scramble ashore, badly bruised and in an exhausted condition. As soon as the alarm was raised searchlight units and aeroplane observers were rushed from Schofield Barracks near by. The tragedy occurred late in the afternoon and the quickfalling darkness hampered the searchers. Searchlights from high vantage points were played on the sea, and the aircraft circled low, endeavouring to locate the missing bodies. It was planned to drop flares 011 the surface above the bodies if they were seen. Mrs. Stribling's body was recovered the next day. Later that/ day it was with the utmost horror that the attention of the daring air observers was dTawn by a school of sharks circling an object. The pilots unsuccessfully attempted to drive away the sharks by diving repeatedly within a, few feet of the surface. The aeroplanes then sent radio messages reporting the position and what they had seen. Another flight of machines answered the call and desperately attempted to drive awav the sharks by firing their machine-guns, but the monsters were too deep' to be affected even by the noise. . An Army lifeboat soon arrived, however, and recovered the mutilated bodv of Lieutenant Stribling. No trace yet has been found of Lieutenant Stevenson's body, which is believed to have been devoured by the BllflrliS. Although the waters of the Hawaiian Islands teem with man-eating sharks thousands of people swim daily within the safety of those beaches which are protected by coral reefs. It is claimed that sharks will not cross over a reef into the shallower and smoother water inside. However, some sharks have been observed within reefs, especially females, which apparently seek the calm waters to deliver their young. This .rule applies in Sydney, where the majority of the sharks caught within the harbour in the summer months are females.