SWEPT TO DEATH

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 155, 3 July 1934, Page 12

SWEPT TO DEATH

I TRAGEDY AT BONDI TWO FISHERMEN DROWNED VERY’ DANGEROUS SPOT Two Jiivu were swept off rocks at the foot of the cliffs near a sewer outfall, North Bondi. Sydney, early on the morning of June 17 and drowned. The spot where the men lost their lives is a very dangerous one. There is a beetling cliff several hundred feet high and at the bottom is a large •coni crete block, part of the sewer outfall, and known locally as “the pillbox.” Ji is the custom of many men to stand on this block, or on the rocks immediately below, and fish. Immediately behind the “pillbox” the cliff assumes a. vave-like formation, and when heavy seas are. breaking they surge up against the cliff and in receding carry ba’ck into the deep anythin# detachable io their way. It was while standing on the “pillbox'’ that the two men were swept away. Under the influence of a southwester the sea was very rough. About in o’clock, a couple of hours before : high tide, the men arrived with fishing gear. From the top of the cliffs they viewed the swirling waters breaking in great patches of against the rocks beneath. Dumped on to the Rocks. The Iwo men who were drowned were apparently strangers to the locality and unacquainted with the method of escape for. as the wave crashed against, the cliff and receded, it carried them over the ledge and dumped them on to the rocks below. Eve-witnesses state that the ender man appeared to be hurt, by the fall, for he lav motionless, and apparently unconscious, on the rocks. The younger man to his feet just as a second “dumper” carried the two men out into the deep. Men who had been sitting on the rocks when they saw the first wave approaching scrambled for a place behind rhe “pillbox.’’ where they were partly protected. Horror-stricken, they saw the two men swept nut to sea without being able to raise a finger to help them. One wanted to take the lifeline and swim out- to where the man was struggling but his mates would not | allow him to do so. i Messages for help were sent to the _ i Bondi police station and the surf club. The pilot steamer Captain Cook put to • sea and cruised around in the legality ‘ for some time, but was unable to find | any trace of the bodies. Members of the North Bondi Surf Club also made I an extremely hazardous attempt to loI cate the missing men. but failed. SevI oral policemen hurried to the locality. I but were unable to take any action. Story Told by Eye-Witness, • ( \ mmnt McGiiiiicss. an eye-witness lof the tragedy, said he and several | others were sitting on the rocks im | mediately below what is known as “the pillbox.” “Suddenly,” he said, “a big greenback wave came along. As we saw it coming we sang out ‘Look out, water,’ and ran behind the 1 pillbox. The two men who had come down a few minutes before were standing on top of the ‘pillbox’ gazing out to sea. The wall of water smashed against the cliff immediately behinc and above the ‘pillbox,’ and the re ceding wave caught both men anc dumped them on to the rocks beneath just beyond where we had been sit ting. The elder man appeared to fal heavily and to become unconscious The younger man was scrambling tc his feet when another ‘greenback I‘came in and carried both men into the I swirling waters, where they disap peared. ’ ’ I Five men tried to get out the surf ' boat, but were delayed for about hall ’an hour owing to there being no key available for the boatshed, and it wa? necessary to break in the door. “II ! it had not been for the delay it is ' probable that we would have been able ito save them/’ one of the men re- ‘ marked. A secret appliance fitted to motor cars by two Prague inventors emit loud shrieking noises if an attempt i: made to steal the vehicle; the device is placed differently in each car.