YACHT HITS FERRY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24506, 15 January 1941, Page 11

YACHT HITS FERRY

WOMAN SWIMS ASHORE. FISHERMEN TO RESCUE (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEYi Dec. 26. Members of a yachting party Jumped' overboard when their craft collided with the Manly ferry steamer Dee Why about 200 yards off George's Head, a harbour promontory, late at night. A young woman struck out for the shore and landed safely. Five other members of the party were picked up by fishermen. A man and a woman remained in- the boat, which drifted across the harbour to Camp Cove, near Watson's Bay. ■-. "When I saw that a collision was inevitable, I warned the party to jump for their lives,!' said James Richardson, the owner of the boat. "We swam about, for a while, but when I saw George Williams and Miss Mabel Jenkins still in •the boat I swjm after, it. I knew they could not handle it, and that they might get into sen-, ous difficulty. But it drifted too fast, and I could not catch it." Richardson said that a speed boat picked him and Charles McDonald up, and they boarded the pilot vessel Captain Cook, which cruised round the harbour for about an hour with the aid of searchlights for the derelict yacht, which was eventually found in Camp Cove. The couple were landed at Watson's Bay. Meanwhile. Miss Iris Manning, 18, swimming strongly,' had reached the shore exhausted, half a mile from the scene of the collision. The other members of the party were picked up by fishermen. Donato and Amato, and landed at Clifton Gardens. George Williams said that he jumped with the others when the ferry bore down on them, and while swimming in the water saw Miss Jenkins still in the yacht. He decided to swim back and stay with her. The sails were up at the time, but he had no idea how to navigate the craft. As they grounded in Camp Cove the rudder was lost. Miss Jenkins was climbing out on to the rocks when the police launch Osiris rescued them. After they landed the Osiris towed the yacht back to the police boatshed at East Circular Quay. . By a coincidence, Mr and Mrs James Jenkins, of Cessnock, uncle and aunt of Miss Jenkins, were passengers on the Dee Why. which was proceeding to Circular Quay.