A SEA TRAGEDY.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12469, 19 February 1909, Page 1

A SEA TRAGEDY.

■ «» The Danish barquo H^dila arrived at Falmouth on December 19th from Tacomba, which she left on July 9th. The average passage is 140 days, but the HadiJa had taken 162, and though \the margin was so slight she had risen to. a premium of £25 on Lloyd's overdue list. Her master, Captain Dry den, stated that while his chart indicated "No icebergs north of :tKis* line," ho encountered them nearly 100 miles north of.it. His most terrible experience was when off the Falkland Islands. He encountered a cyclone and a snow blizzard. There wero enormous crossseas, and one tremondous wave struck the vessel broadside, sweeping four men from the 'main deck. The vessel quivered with tho shock, and for the moment they all expected tho : rigging would be carried away. Within half a minuto another big wave struck the vessel from the other side, carrying back two of the men, and landing them safely on deck. Lines were thrown- out, which the cither two poor fellows grasped, and one was safely, hauled on board, but the other, while grasping the rope, seemed urtcpnscious, for his head was all tho time under water. >'"(; -A sailor named Wuinther volun- ! teered to go into tho raging sea to • assist his comra.de, and with a lino round his waist jumped overboard. With much difficulty ho dragged tho ■unconscious^ man to tho side of the vessel, and was : himself hauled on board in a dazed condition. The crew grasped the sea boots of the unconscious man , but suddenly the body slipped away, leaving the boots: in their hands— a grim experience that is by no -means uncommon wrfch men lin their- death throes, as shown ; by:-. » the fact that miners often cast their •' ! shoes: whin falling down a sijaft. The '■ victim of, this sea -tragedy was only 17 years of ago. " \ ' " .