LEAP TO DEATH

Southland Times, Issue 22767, 18 December 1935, Page 5

LEAP TO DEATH

YOUNG WOMAN STOWAWAY. JUMPS FROM MONTEREY. (Per United Press Association.) Auckland, December 17. A young woman, Miss Phyllis Elbon, of Port Melbourne, who stowed away on the Monterey at Melbourne last week, jumped overboard and was drowned off Gabo Island while the I liner was en route from Melbourne to Sydney. . When the Monterey arrived here today, a passenger said the young woman jumped from the boat deck in view of a party of seamen who were working there. The stowaway was discovered in the first class lounfe about 8 p.m. on December 11, he added. She told the purser her mother was ill and said she had concealed herself as she did not have the fare to reach her mother in Sydney. She was not placed in the ship’s lock-up, but in one of the first class state rooms. The following morning she leaped from the boat deck, and although a seaman threw a lifebelt which struck the water a few seconds after her, she apparently sank immediately and was not seen again. As soon as the alarm was given, the Monterey was swung hard to port and a lifeboat was swung out and manned. The Monterey circled while officers and mep scanned the sea, but no trace of the woman was found and the voyage was continued after an. hour’s fruitless searching. The girl left a note stating that her original story about having a sick mother was false, and that she had decided to take her life as she was unable to gain the affection of the man with whom she was in love.