LAUNCH TRAGEDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 47, 25 February 1941, Page 10

LAUNCH TRAGEDY

RATINGS DROWNED PLUCKY RESCUES IN ROUGH SEA SYDNEY, Feb. 13. Three of a party of ten naval ratings who had been on .shore leave were drowned when a naval motorboat vas swamped by heavy sea at an Australian port. They were Petty Officer E. J. Dunn and Able-Seamen J. Irving and T. Lee. The other sev'*n were saved by a naval cutter and the pleasure ketch Viking in the light of a bright mcon. The hero of the tragedy was a seaman who dived unclad from a vantage point and swam 400 yards to assist in the rescue. Two of the ten ratings on leave were members of a party on a pleasure cruise on the Viking, which is owned by two brothers. The Viking arrived inside the port at midnight and unloaded its passengers. The two ratings joined their mates, who were waiting for them in the motor-boat. A strong north-easterly wind was blowing, and a heavy, choppy sea was running. Most of the ratings were seated astern, and it is believed that the smaU launch was struck by tv.o or three Ag waves

in quick succession, which broke over the bows and swamped it. Watchers from the shore saw the launch suddenly disappear. The two owners of the Viking and two young women immediately set out in the Viking to where the men were struggling in the water. They rescued two men. Four were saved by a naval cutter, and a seventh swam to safety One of the women, Miss Dorothy Rumney, a Sydney mannequin, saved the life of one man brought on board the .Viking by artificial respiration.