MAGNIFICENT WORK BY RESCUE PARTIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 11226, 3 June 1922, Page 7

MAGNIFICENT WORK BY RESCUE PARTIES

TRYING EXPERIENCES ON THE ISLAND BROKEN VESSEL ALMOST SUBMERGED “All saved from wreck; no casualties.” What a splendid record of rescue work! After four men from the Wiltshire had been landed on Thursday, darkness fell upon the scene and work had perforce to cease. When dawn came yesterday the heroic work was continued, and by means of a lifeline the drenched and shivering men were slowly but surely taken from the wreck, until all (103) had been accounted for. * It was a brave deed—one typical of those splendid men "who go down to the sea in ships.” The ill-fated vessel was lashed by the angry seas, and the chilly waters swept the deck, but the work of rescue proceeded until the last human being was carried to the island. The rescue parties experienced a most trying time. To reach the scene of the wreck they had to tramfj dreary miles, struggle j through icy-oold water flowing breast-high, and make their way through dense bush. It was a Herculean task. It was a labour which only real men could accomplish. But—it was done. Over one hundred men were snatched from the jaws of death, and while the loss of a splendid ship must be regretted, there is great consolation in the knowledge that every man on the doomed vessel reached safety.