HEROIC RESCUE AT SEA.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11126, 27 July 1907, Page 2 (Supplement)

HEROIC RESCUE AT SEA.

NEW YORK, June 12; The passengers on the Cunard liner Carmania, which arrived here from Liverpool early this morning, • brought with them one -of the most 'thrilling stories of the sea it is possible to conceive.*'

On Monday afternoon, when the great liner was ploughing its way through a hur. ricane of snow, the look-out called the attention of the officer on the bridge, to a little boat; evidently a fishing dory, that was tossing on the waves a few hundred yards away. The figure of a man sitting upright could be seen. The sea was too rough to allow of a boat being lowered;- and the captain of the Carmania called for a volunteer who would swim out to • the dory and endeavor to bring its occupant aboard . Amid the^cheers of the passengers, who "were now. thronging the decks dear pite the : heavily falling snoWj a seaman named Breen, whose' cheerful nature has won for him the nickname of "Sunny Jim," at once stepped forwaftl. A lifeline was fastened' to" his waist, and m a moment he had dived over the % side of the ship into the .boiling' sea* In breathless silence the passengers watched the heroic sailor as, slowly but steadily, he fought his way toHhe little boat. Now and again he would disappear m the trough of a huge sea/ and those holding the lifeline would instinctively prepare themselves to. haul him m.- -■■ ..■..•■■ • ■■■■ .. ■•■:■'. • t . ■ At last Breen reached within a few feet of the boat, and, as he explained afterwards, he shouted to the man m the boat to help him aboard. But still there was no sign from the figure sitting rigidly at the stern. , ,- THROWN INTO THE BOAT. A moment later a great wave caught the man on whom the eyes of the spectator's were fixed, and almost before they could realise it, Breen had been thrown out of the water into the dory. It took him a moment to recover himself, and then, taking the oar from, between the knees of the man m the stern, he began to scull towards, the steamer, and, amid a roar of cheers from the pas-' sengers, reached the side of the liner.

In a very few moments both men had been lifted up oti the liner's deck, yand Breen was at once surrounded by a crowd of cheering men and women. • ;'';• . Meanwhile the man who had', been rescued had been taken below and hande 1 over to. the liner's medical staff.. He was' unconscious, and it took several hours .of massaging before circulation was restored to nis body. It was . twenty-four hours before he was able to speak, and then He told atragic story. He said his name is Louis Valiety p.id that he is a fisherman belonging to St. Malo,' France. Nearly two months ago he had sailed from his home on the barquentine Le Mimosa for a fishing ex- § edition off the coast of Newfoundland, n May 26, with another fisherman, he left the barquentine m the dory to bring m the nets. They were caught m a hurricane, and quickly lost sight of their ship. Vallet's companion was swept overboard by one of the heavy seas which struck their little craft, and Vallet was left alone adrift m the Atlantic. . ,

He had provisions for two days inthe boat, and these were consumed by the end of tbe fifth day. /From then till his rescue he had \)een without food or water. He became unconscious, and did not remember seeing the liner nor any thing of his rescue. Before the Carmania touched New York the, passengers subscribed two .substantial purses, one of which was "'van to Breen and the other to Vallet. It is feared, however, that the latter, who is suffering from gangrene as the re«nlu of his terrible experiences, will not re cover.'