HAULED TO SAFETY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22819, 28 August 1937, Page 2 (Supplement)

HAULED TO SAFETY

TWO MEN IN PERIL CROWDS WATCH RESCUE WORK Crowds of holiday-makers at ilhos-on-Sea, Denbighshire, recently saw two men hauled 30ft. on to the'pier deck with ropes, after clinging perilously to the pier girders while waves, lashed bv half a gale, threatened to wash theffi off. The men had gone out fishing in a light ten-foot rowing-boat. When the wind freshened, they tried to row ashore, but could make 110 headway against a dangerous cross-current. The boat's nose dipped into a wave and became half-full of water. As tlicy tried to bail the water out the boat was carried against a pier pylon. The men abandoned it and managed to grasp a cross girder. . When Mr. Bob Marshall, a local boat-owner, heard of their plight, he asked for a volunteer to go out wit" liiin in another boat to the rescue, but there was no one among the spectators -who was good enough oarsman to go. "The only way to rescue the men was by ropes," Mr. Marshall stated. "W® got the ropes, and while volunteers from the crowd held one I climbed down to the,two men, "They were drenched arid'almost- ex * hausted. I shouted for another rope to bo let down. Fastening one round the thighs and the other round the shoulders of each man in turn, I had them hauled to. the pier, deck, -'l3oft. above. The men were little the worse for the adventure."