DROWNED IN SURF

Timaru Herald, Volume CXL, Issue 20290, 13 December 1935, Page 10

DROWNED IN SURF

HEROIC EFFORTS AT RESCUE By Telegraph—Press Association CHRISTCHURCH, December 12. A man was drowned while bathing at Sumner this afternoon. The body has not yet been recovered. Nothing was found in his clothing by which he could be identified. The available evidence is that he was middle-aged, of dark complexion and medium build. Owing to the state of the tide, a current was running along the beach making bathing dangerous, except for expert swimmers. This man was seen to be in difficulties by three boys— Douglas Wethey, Tony Cook and Gordon Dalzell—all junior members of the Sumner Life Saving Club. They immediately went to his assistance, but the man refused the boys’ help, saying that he could swim. The boys were not easy about the man’s position and were not surprised when, a few minutes later, he was seen to be obviously in difficulties. Again the boys went to help him, and while Wethey and Dalzel supported him, Cook went ashore for the life line. Wethey and Dalzel found the man’s weight too much for them, and they were relieved by another boy, Herbert Stevens. Stevens kept the man afloat for a time, but when the man’s struggles immersed them both several times, Stevens was forced to let go, In the meantime, Wethey, Cook, Dalzel and C. Mortimer had run out the life line, but the man had disappeared. A search for the body was continued all the afternoon, but without success.