EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE FROM A WRECK.

Southland Times, Issue 8056, 10 July 1885, Page 2

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE FROM A WRECK.

One of the moat extraordinary escapes, after '■' ship wi eek, has been reported at Hull." A keel, bound from Grimsby toi Leeds, was driven ' against a aandbank and capsized, and it was supposed that all on beard— tue master, his wife, and three children— had perished, ftext morning the aiptain of a steam-tug was passing the ipot where the acciaent happened, aad saw the keel floating bottom upwards on the. edge'of the sandbank. ,He got ae near to it as he coald, and presently heard sounds of knocking coming from the cabin end. The .crew concluded that some one was ou board, and energetic steps were takea to get the keel in such a position as to effect a rescue; After several hours' labour this was accomplished, and a hole -having been cut through the bottom of the vessel, the captain's Wife, M» Snbwden, . and one of her children were rescued alive, after-an agonising suspense of nearly 17 hours. The water had nearly rilled the cabin where the woman "and her three . children were sleeping ; and there was jnst space left fox her to keep her head and those of her little ones above the water, which ultimately reached., up to the., mother's throat. When they were aroused by the sinking of the keel and" the inrush of the water, she contrived to get hold of fthe children, who all held on by the hair of her head, and in that way for some time all of the little. ones were kept alive, but daring the day two of them died. Just as the man who-zeScned them got into the -cabin, the water flowed in, and reached to the woman's month. All the children were still clinging to her hair, and she and the live child were in a terribly exhausted condition. The woman's hands were raw with knocking at the side of the keel. The survivors were taken on board the tag and carefully tended. At the moment of the keel capsizing, what is known as the horseline twisted round the captain and carried him down amongst the rigging, which appeared to have remained under water even when the keel was being rolled over by the force of the tide.— Lloyd's Snipping Gazette, May 22.