GALLANT ACT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26558, 5 September 1947, Page 5

GALLANT ACT

DOUBLE DROWNING FATALITY CHANCE OF SURVIVAL FORFEITED Rec. 8 p.m. SYDNEY, Sept. 4. Mrs Beryl Watson, aged 20 years, is the only survivor of the sinking of the fishing launch yesterday, in which her husband and his brother were drowned. All hope of finding one man alive has been abandoned, and the body of the other has been recovered. The survivor, who is a bride of two weeks, said that her husband forfeited his chance of survival by insisting that she and his brother wear the only two inflatable lifebelts aboard. An earlier message from Sydney said that two brothers were believed to have been drowned when a 21ft launch sank off Smoky Cape, near Kempsey, Northern New South Wales. The only survivor is the 20-year-old wife of one brother, who, after an amazing escape from the sea, climbed a 400 ft cliff to a lighthouse, where she collapsed. The launch broke down in heavy seas. The girl’s husband, Sydney William Watson, aged 30 years, was washed overboard. Hours later the launch sank, and the girl, who was wearing an inflatable lifebelt, was washed towards the shore. She reached the shore early to-day, and made her way to the lighthouse.