BOY'S WIGHTS ON BEACH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19127, 23 September 1936, Page 8

BOY'S WIGHTS ON BEACH

ROWED OUT TO SEA INSPIRED BY PIRATES LONDON, Aug. 13. Frederick Johnstone, the nijie-year-old Norbui'y schoolboy who disappeared at Brighton on Sunday, was found early today by a policeman asleep beneath a boat oh the beach. lie had spent three nights on the i each without food and had rowed out to sea in a boat lie. found with the intention of boarding a steamer in the Channel. Ho wanted to emulate the fonts of sea Heroes of whom he had read in, hooks. The boy was in a distressed condition as a result of his long exposure and lack of food. He was too ill to give an account of his adventures, which were told by his mother. She had taken him to Brighton for the day oh Sunday, from LiiilchampUm, where they were on holiday. Throughout th'e journey in the bus the hoy read a, book about pirates. HID TINDER BOAT "The first thing Frederick did after leaving me," Mrs. Johnstone said, "was to throw away a conspicuous red beret which he had been wearing. He went down to the bench, where he roamed round, and at night hid beneath a tar-paulin-covered boa(. "Vestorday he took out the boat, under which he had been sleeping and rowed out to sea. He intended to hoard a steamer in the Channel. He must have got tired, because lie came back and again slept on the beach. "Frederick has always had a, longing to go to sea, but we have repeatedly told him he must wait until he is 16. All his spare time is spent in studying models of snips and in reading sea stories, lie followed the reports of the adventures of the Girl Pat with the greatest interest. "When jvc tried to settle him down by saying that the majority of sea stories which he read were fictitious he pointed to a newspaper report about the Girl Pat and said. 'But this is true.' "