DEATH IN MID-STREAM

Taranaki Daily News, 7 January 1927, Page 6

DEATH IN MID-STREAM

SWIMMER SUDDENLY SINKS HEART FAILURE PROBABLY CAUBJ FATALITY IN THE WAIWAKAIBQ, While bathing in the Waiwakaiho yesterday with some friends, Joseph Herbert Glentworth was seized with a fatal heart attack and sank in about 15 feet of water. He was 19 years of ago and a younger son of Mr. and Mrs. H. Glentworth, of Bell Block. It is understood he was employed by Boon Bros. The fatality occurred about a quarter of a mile beyond the borough abattoirs in the vicinity of Mr. W. L. Russell’s crusher plant. Glentworth, Claude Stewart and James Hamilton had gone for a bathe on their way home. It appears that they had already swum across the river twice and were returning from the other side the third time when Stewart and Hamilton looked, round to see if Glentworth was coming.. They saw, him raise his hands above his head and then suddenly sink beneath the water.

One of them swam over but could not effect a rescue, and assistance was obtained from near-by houses. Roy Eva dived in and found that Glentworth was in about 15 feet of water, held against the bank by the force of the current. The body was dislodged and was eventually recovered from a shallower part of the river about twenty minutes after Glentworth had disappeared. Medical opinion was that Glentworth had succumbed to heart failure, as he had apparently not breathed after sinking. It is stated that he had had treatment for trouble of this kind some time ago, and it is unlikely that an inquest will be necessary. He was a fairly good swimmer.