A GALLANT RESCUE.

New Zealand Times, Volume XLX, Issue 8166, 18 August 1887, Page 2

A GALLANT RESCUE.

The following interesting account is given in the Australasian of the rescue of the people on board the barque Gauge, recently wrecked off Queenscliff: — Mr Thomas Dickson, the superintendent of the Queenscliff lifeboat crew, who was found just as ho was turning in after the night’s work, gave a graphic and most intelligent sketch of the experiences of his crew on* the humane and arduous task which they so gallantly accomplished in the face of great difficulties. “ I had only just got into bed when there was a rap at the door, and I heard a voice crying, 1 Tom, get up ; there’s a ship ashore on Point Lonsdale.' I jumped out of bed, and dresffing hastily, ran down to the pier, hearing as I ran the tolling of the alarm bell. At the pier I met ray fellows running quickly to the spot, and in a few minutes we had at least double the crew that we wanted to man the lifeboat, which always swings on the davits at the pier. Our boat is manned the same as those of the Humane Society ; that is to say, there are a superintendent, a coxswain, a bowman, and as many men as the boat pulls oars —in our case, 10. We have no captain. I act as captain. We quickly got the boat lowered, for she always hangs fully equipped for active sendee at a moment’s notice, and the men having already put on their cork life-belts, dropped at once into their places, and we began to pull for the wreck in the teeth of a strong westerly wind, which at times broke into heavy squalls, and blew with the fury of a gale. It was raining heavily, and pitch dark, but the men bent to their oars with a will, as indeed men only can pull when they know that life is at stake, and that they hold in their hands the means of saving it. But we made very slow progress in such heavy weather. It was about a two miles’ pull, and as we got further out toward the Rip past the Queenscliff light the full of the wind struck us and beat us back, so that at times for some strokes we scarcely «ained an inch ; but the men were pulling as though their own lives depended on reaching the ship, and during occasional lulls of the wind the boat made such headway that we were abreast of the cemetery, which is pretty close to the wreck, in little more than an hour.' ‘ ‘ Then I caught the first sight of the stranded vessel, looming up an indistinct black mass before us, her outline made visible and thrown into relief by the white seas which were breaking over her stem. She was close to and right abreast of the point, stem on, and listing slightly to port, with the angry surf white as milk around her. I could see that some of the sails—the double topsails —were still set, and bearing the barque further on to the reef, but the foresails were carried away, and were flying loosely from the ringbolts like clothes on a line. As we got nearer we could hear cries on deck, but

could see no one. The vessel was grinding heavily, and the surges rose so high about her that we could not go close up to her. We took our boat round her stem into the open water, and backed it to within hailing distance of the barque, still keeping our stem to seaward. Finding that it was impossible to approach the ship to take the people off, we called out that we would ‘ lie-to ’ till daylight, and that they were to prepare lines to hold us fore-and-aft, when we came to take them into the boat, but as they were foreigners I don’t know whether they understood us or not. The seas were now repeatedly smashing against the stem, and curling over the wheel, and they swept the decks right to the bows. The vessel seemed already to be full of water, for every time a sea came the water boiled up out of the cabin skylights, as though it could find no resting-place beneath. We still could not distinguish anyone on board, but it seemed to us that if the men were to live aboard till morning they must be up the rigging, although there was possibly a spot of safety on the higher portion of the poop forward, if they had plenty of hold to cling to. In either case, their position was a truly pitiable one, the water, which must have drenched them every moment, being icy cold. It numbed our fingers as we lay on our oars, still keeping our bows to the seas, which threatened to overwhelm us if we had anything less staunch than a lifeboat under us. Even now that it is all over, I believe that if we had been foolhardy enough to attempt to save the shipwrecked crew while the darkness covered everything, we would have run great risk of losing our own lives and theirs too. There was nothing for it but for the unfortunates on board the barque to make the best of the position for two or three hours longer, and for the lifeboat to stand by till daylight. “As soon as day dawned the work of rescue was begun, but even then it was risky enough, and could only have been accomplished by seafaring men who every day of their lives are practised in the work of managing small craft in stormy water. How did we get alongside ? Well, any boatman knows that so close to a reef and in such tempestuous weather there is only one way of doing it, and that is to do as we did. First we let go an anchor, which kept the boat’s head steadily to sea, and then we payed out the rope attached to the anchor, as we slowly and cautiously backed in toward the vessel, still taking care to give her a wide berth ; and then, seizing the two long lines which were thrown to us by the Austrians, we made them fast, one to the stem and the other to the stem of our boat, thus keeping her abreast of the barque. “ There was still a tolerably wide interval of water between us, which every moment, as opportunity offered, grew less. Then as we neared the side of the barque, a ladder was put over her bulwark. The first man who jumped upon it took such an eager and dangerous leap that when he luckily just managed to reach the life-boat, and was caught by some of the crew, I could not help saying to him, ‘ You’re in a great hurry, my friend whereupon he hugged me impulsively, as though he would reply, ‘Yes, life is very sweet.’ “Well, after that there was no scrambling to get into our boat. The crew were cool and watchful of their chances. Three of them would descend the ladder at a time, the lowermost man taking his turn to jump first, then the next above him, and then the third, their plaees on the ladder being meanwhile filled by others from above. In this way we reached the sixteenth, when the captain’s wife, a poor little lady, very young and very fragile, came over the side and stepped down the ladder. She must have held on there for fully five minutes, while the lifeboat plunged up and down like a cork on the waters, one moment .wide apart from the ship, and the next thumping violently against her beam. We told her that when the boat rose near enough two of our men would catch hold of her, and that when they cried ‘ Let go ’ she was to fall into their arms. When the moment came the little woman carried out her part bravely. As soon as the signal was given she sprang off the ladder, just as the boat was descending into the trough of a heavy sea, and she fell some distance before she was safely grasped by the outstretched arms of the men. She sat down on a seat very quietly. She had been very quiet all the time, and remained speechless till she saw her husband come to the taffrail in his shirt sleeves, and look over the side. Then she stood up, and, stretching out her arms as though she would embrace him, she said in broken English, ‘ You come too.’ The captain was one of the last three to leave the vessel, and when we had got all the people on board we cast off from the ship and hauled up to our anchor, which we found to be fouled. .The’boat, being so deeply laden we could not followthe usual directions for releasing a fouled anchor, and ■ after backing and rowing forward in two or three directions to endeavor to get the anchor up, I thought it better to cut the line. This was done, and we rowed back to Queenscliff. The wind had been moderating, and we reached the pier safely, although our boat was leaking rather badly, through having had her bilge knocked about, while she was thumbed against the Gauge during the work of bringing the men off. “ I don’t say it all in a boastful spirit,” said Mr Dickson as he finished his narrative, “but I think our fellows deserve a good word for what they have just done. They are all young and lusty, and the work they did would be rather a stiff job for any but men inured, as they are, to the hardships of a fisherman’s life. They have accompanied mo on several trips of the same kind, but it is many a day since the Queenscliff lifeboat crew have had such an opportunity of showing bow useful they can be in a big pinch.”