THRILLING RESCUE AT SEA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2924, 30 March 1910, Page 82

THRILLING RESCUE AT SEA.

CAPTAIN'S COOLNESS. _ Michael Henry Ryan, (says the New York World), an able seaman Philadelphia, was washed overboard by a wave and picked up in nine minutes during.a westerly,gale and a high rolling sea To his owri~cbolness and the seamanship of Captain A. R. Mills, Ryan, who is a Baltimorean .of athletic build, owes his,.lif.e., The. American Jin'er^.leav-

ing Southampton on January 8, had reached the longitude of 27 .vest. The passengers were at luncheon and Captain Mills on the bridge. The ship had dipped up a lot of water on the down side of a wave, when a gangway went adrift. The bo'sun, Ernest Sargent, with five hands, was ordered to secure it. Captain Mills had taken the precaution to slow down, and to this order the hero of this tale owes his life. Another plunge of the bowsprit, another lump of a sea, a wave-swept deck, and all the watch were down grabbing for gear, or stanchion, or rail. Ryan went overboard through the open gangway. The captain from the bridge caught his first sight of him on a heaving swell abaft the bridge. He "iet the ship go on a bit to allow the man to clear the screws.

Charles Lenz, able seaman, the "deck man," was just where he should have been—on his job. Lenz is an inventor, the patentee of a quick release life-buoy. Here was the inventive sailor's chance to prove the value of his own device —an opportunity for which he had been waiting for years. The buoys were strung all along the ship's rails. Lenz quickly seized one and flung it so that it fell within four fathoms of the swimming Ryan, who, still encased in oilskins and sou'wester, had kicked off his rubber boots. Through the saloon ports a steward, gazing seaward between courses, had glimpsed the struggling man outside. He raised, the alarm within. All the oassengers jumped up and rushed to ports or rails. To lower a boat in such a sea was impossible. "Poor man, he has no chance," everybody said. The ship now reversed, was going back to where Ryan was bobbing. He deliberately swam for the buoy, thrust his anm through, and finally got within it. Captain Mills said there was one chance—one in a thousand. He would back until the ship was abeam of the sailor, and make the Philadelphia a lee for Ryan. An error of judgment meant that the plucky seaman would surely lose the number of his mess'. As soon as he had got the sailor dead abeam Captain Mills stopped his engines and let the wind blow the steamship down sidewise upon the cool seaman: A gangway was unshipped amidships, and steady hands were ready with a heavy line. A sea ladder was over the side, but Captain Mills judged that Ryan had not sufficient strength to climb it. A sailor man, running along the rail, lowered the bight of the heaving line into the man's benumbed hands. A shout arose from the deck. The passengers-cheei'ed again and again. But something displeased the phlegmatic Ryan. He looked at the bowline knot on the rope critically and then ; sang up from the water, " What lobster made this knot ? This is no shipshape way to make a bowline on a bight." Clinging with one hand to the heaving line, he laboured with bloodless fingers to unloose the knot. It seemed an eternity to both crew and passengers. Some of rjis shipmates say Ryan was five* minutes making the Dowline afresh. At length he had adjusted the knot to his satisfaction. He slipped it over his head and under his arms while the amateur photographers got busy snapshotting him at all stages of his ascent and arrival back aboard, the self-conscious Ryan doing his share of the posing. Some of the women could have hugged the dripping sailor. \ Dr Henderson gave him a good strong | draw at a brandy bottle, and Ryan was I soon on watch again, while the passengers j returned below to finish their luncheon. | " That thing couldn't happen again in a i blue moon," said Captain Mills. "If we ! had been going at full speed Ryan would • have lost the number of his mess, sure." Captain. Mills says the rescue took' just • nine minutes.