EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1162, 15 July 1885, Page 3

EXTRAORDINARY ESCAPE

PROM A WRICK.

One of the most extraordinary escapes, after shipwreck, has been reported at Hull. A keel bound from Grimsby to Leeds was driven against a sandbank and capsized, and it was supposed that all on board — the master, his wife, and three children — had perished. Next morning the captain of a steam-tug was passing the spot where the accident happened, and saw the keel floating bottom upwards on the edge of the sandbank. He got as near to it as he could, and presently heard sounds of knocking coming from the cabin ,end. The crew concluded that someone was on board, and energetic steps were taken to get the

keel in such a position as to effect a rescue. After several hours labor this was accomplished, and a hole having been cut through the bottom of the vessel, the captain's wife, MrsSnowden, and one of her children were rescued alive, after an agonising suspense of nearly 17 hours. The water had nearly filled the cabin where the woman and her three children were sleeping ; and there was jußt space left for her to keep her head and those of her little ones above the water, which ultimately reached up to the mother's throat. When they were aroused by the sinking of the keel and the inrush of the water, she contrived to get hold of the children, who all held on by the hair of her head, and in that way for some time all of the little ones were kept alive, but during the day two of them died. Just as the men who rescued them got into the cabin, the water flowed in, and reached to the woman's mouth. All the children were still clinging to her hair, and she and the live child were in a, terribly exhausted! condition. The mother's hands were raw with knocking at the aide of the keel. The survivors were taken on board the tug and carefully tonded. At the moment of. the keel capsizing, what is known as tbe horseline twisted round the captain and carried him down amongst the rigging, which appeared to have remained under water even when the keel was being rolled over by the force of the tide;— Lloyd's Shipping " G-azette," May 22nd.