SEA DRAMA; UNABLE TO SAVE GIRL'S LIFE

Chronicle (Levin), 22 July 1947, Page 4

SEA DRAMA; UNABLE TO SAVE GIRL'S LIFE

AUCKLAND, July 21. While the engines of the liner Eimutaka, Wellington bound, beat a threnody, the blonde Helena Young, aged 1(1 years, died miles from her Pitcairn Island home in the ship's hospital at midnight on Friday, in a tragic clima.x to a fateful drama of the sea. With the liner diverted to the island in response to an urgent radio appeal. ! the child, who had been ill with l tetanus for 10 days without a doctorh care, was taken aboard the vessel in a desperate bid to save hef life. "We leave her in your hands. God bless you," said the sobbing parents as th6 girl was carried aboard under the care of the. ship's surgeon and Dr. James Tyler, formerly of Auckland and St. Bartholomew's Hospital, London Five hours later, despite the doetors' unremitting attehtion, thel child died At 7 a.m. Helena Young was buried al sea. A message for help received by the Rimutaka ;s radio room, opened thi? fateful drama. While the islanders prayed and Morse crackled its reply, the vessel raced fbr Pitcairn. The doetors from the ship went ashore. No chance of the child 's survival on Pitcairn and one chance in a thousand on board, was their quiek appraisal. Exhaustion and starvation were the difHculties they told the tensely watching parents and unhappy " sympathetic islanders. So they took the girl aboard to begin what was to be her last jour ney. The parents and islanders gazed at the disappearing vessel until it was hull down on the horizon. Next morning as the Rimutaka set course for Wellington, her engines were beating a requiem for the blonde Helena Youag, aged ten.