FROM SOUTH POLE TO NORTH SEA

Southland Times, Issue 17469, 25 March 1915, Page 2

FROM SOUTH POLE TO NORTH SEA

lieu T EX A N T-CO AI M A X DE R REXXICK. HEROIC DEATH Out in ttie heaving North Sea since the war began have been men on active service who previously have sailed to the Antarctic: they are not on one ship, hut are scattered among different commands, and they form the subject of an article in Mr 'l'. P. O'Connor's paper. ‘‘Great Deeds of the Great War." It falls to this writer to make known to ibe public for the first time how heroic was the end of Lieutenant-commander If. do I’. Rennick. who had previously been on hoard the Terra Nova, and whose neverfailing good spirits and boyish nature made him loved liy the whole crew. Out in the Antarctic nothing daunted him. and the character he earned in those long nights when the blizzard howled round the snow-covered shacks at Hut Point passed out with him in an exit which is unsurpassed in its bravery. ALWAYS CHEERFUL. Tims Ilia story runs :—"On tho outbreak of war Lieutenant-commander Rcnnick was appointed to ttie cruiser Hogue, and his ship, together with the Cressy and the Aboukir, was given the difficult (ask of patrol duty in tHe North Sea. Stories of RennicU’s cheerfulness during the trying days of that vigilant watch come from an officer who was attached to the explorer by tin- tirpiest ties of friendship. The trials of the watch, the discomfort of the winter conditions. were nothing to him, for lie had well earned the lesson taught by days and nights when the mercury slips liclojv zero and there is little warmth in the wet sleeping bag. "When the Hogue received her deathblow from the stealthy submarine, Lieutenant Rennick was one of those who might have been saved, lie preferred to save Olliers. He was a strong swimmer and quite easily made Ins way in the water to one of Hie many plunks that had hern cast up from the sinking ship. He might have held to that plank until the rescue ship came up. But his thoughts were not for his own safety, struggling in the water near him were

many men unable to swim at all. To one of these the lieutenant promptly swam with his plank, giving the poor fellow his own chance of safety. He found other planks, but on each occasion ho refused to avail himself of their support; he always towed them through the bitter, moaning sea until he reached and saved some seaman struggling in a desperate plight. HIS LIFE FOR HIS MEN. "Four times he accomplished this heroic act of self-sacrifice, then under the stress of the sea and the cold and his own great efforts, his -strong frame weakened, and while swimming to yet another baulk of timber his strength failed him. and ho sank, going to his death as his friend and comrade. Captain Oates, had gone, heroically, simply, and unconi, plaining! y. “Rcnnick's last great act has never been properly honoured. It is known to but a few, for in the confusion of that disaster there were not many sailors who lived to tell of his devotion. It is only from an officer's lips that the. story lias been told. Hut it is? a stqvy magnificent in its spirit; it is well for us to know of this man who could'live so staunchly and die so superbly," '• Lieutenant-commander Ilennick was married to a daughter of Mr A. S. Paterson, of Dunedin.