SAVED BY HIS SON.

Waikato Times, Volume 109, Issue 18343, 1 June 1931, Page 7

SAVED BY HIS SON.

OVER NIAGARA IN BARREL. MAN’S NARROW ESCAPE. ENTANGLED IN THE WHIRLPOOL. United Press Assn. —rTec. Tel. Copyright OTTAWA, May uO. A message from Niagara Fails, Ontario, says William Hill, while attempting to go through the Niagara rapids and whirlpool to-day In a barrel which was placed in the river beneath the waterfall, became entangled in the whirlpool and was rescued by the valiant efforts of his son, William. The barrel was fast filling with water and attempts by firemen to east a rope to Hill failed. An airman who sought to place a rope near the barrel also failed.

Then ihe son tied a rope round his body and struggled through the whirling waters unlit he grasped the barrel. Then, holding his father, amid the cheers of thousands of spectators, he attached a rope to the 'barrel and it was slowly dragged to the Canadian shore with the father inside and the son holding on grimly.

Mr Hill said he believed another hour would have meant his dcatli Eight gallons of water were already in the barrel. He was battered and 'bruised, but expressed regret that he was unable to reach his objective, Queenstown Dock, below the whirlpool, as lie had done twice before, in 1910 and last year, when lie was in the barrel for three hours.

William Hill was carried down the 'Niagara whirlpool and lower rapids on May 30 last year in a steel barrel. He was somewhat injured, and the barrel was ibadly dented. The barrel was caught in an eddy and hung there for half-an-hour, when it was swung into the rapids and passed through the whirlpool and was carried to the Canadian side. l-lill is a veteran waterman, and is said to have recovered the bodies of 117 men and women from the currents.

George Stathakis, a Greek cook, of Buffalo, lost tils life, apparently, by suffocation, when he attempted to go down Niagara Falls on July 5 last year in a 'barrel. He said before starting that he did not mind the risk of death because of the joy of being able to analyse his emotions while being tossed about in (lie whirlpool. The first passage through the whirlpool was made by C. D. Graham, of Philadelphia, in 1886.