SAVED FROM DROWNING

Taranaki Daily News, 13 July 1933, Page 12

SAVED FROM DROWNING

YOUNG MAORI’S ESCAPE. GRASPED BY THE HAIR. Whitianga, July 10. A fortunate escape from drowning was experienced by a Maori; Ben Marsden, aged about 21, when fishing yesterday afternoon at Matapua Bay, nine miles from Whitianga, Mercury Bay, After being thrown from an Bft dinghy, which was struck by a sudden squall, Marsden, who was unable to swim, was taken from the water in an unconscious condition by another Maori, Timoti Hutchinson, who went to his aid in a launch from a distance of about 200 yards away. Both men were engaged in removing fish from a long line buoyed at each end. The dinghy, in which the young man Marsden was working alone, had been about half-filled with fish when it was caught in a northerly squall. Waves broke over the craft and swamped it, precipitating the occupant into the sea. Hutchinson!, who is an experienced boatman, saw Marsden’s plight from the launch in which he was working by himself, and immediately started the engine. Aided by a strong following wind the vessel was soon on the scene of the mishap. However, Marsden was already in a drowning state and his rescuer just managed to grasp the hair of the drowning man’s head. With considerable difficulty he was able to get Marsden, who was by this time unconscious, into the launch. Resuscitation measures were applied, and Marsden was brought to Whitianga after the swamped dinghy had been recovered. The rescued man revived on.the journey and was to-day little the worse for his experience. The scene of the rescue was near Mr. Zane Grey’s base camp at Mercury Bay. The type of fishing line on which the two men were engaged at thd time is sometimes a quarter of a mile long, and has about 200 hooks. Each endt of the line is buoyed and anchored. When sufficient fish have been caught the fishermen travel along the line in a boat and remove the hooked fish.