SENSATIONAL ESCAPE

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1935, Page 4

SENSATIONAL ESCAPE

DIVE THROUGH PORTHOLE NAVY MAN HELD ON PHILOMEL. PURSUED BY SWIMMER ASHORE. ALLEGED DESERTER STILL FREE. By Telegraph—Press Association. Auckland, Oct. 15. A sensational escape was made at 4 a.m. yesterday from the warship Philomel by an acting-petty officer who had been arrested on Friday last at Auckland and was charged with deserting from the Diomede at Napier. The prisoner, while under guard, escaped th ough the porthole, dived into the sea and struck out for the shore. He was clad only in a .white singlet, a pair of trousers and sandshoes. A fresh westerly wind was blowing at the time, the sea was choppy and it was raining. A Royal Marine sentry, fully clad and with a bayonet in his belt, dived overboard in an attempt to recapture the prisoner. The latter reached the shore first, however, and clambered up the bank. He then proceeded along Caliope Road, while the marine, exhausted because of his equipment, was unable to follow. A quarter of an hour later a milkman saw the escapee going towards Stanley Bay, Devonport. The police searched the locality, including bakehouses, where it was thought the man might have entered to dry his clothes. He is still at large. The commencement of the adventures was on Friday afternoon, when the naval authorities, acting on information received, dispatched the master-at-arms to the city in quest of the alleged deserter, who was located at the rear of the post office. The man allegedly showed fight and both were rolling on the ground when a civilian constable arrived and the wanted man was handcuffed and sent back to the ship.