CUTTER SINKS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 January 1933, Page 8

CUTTER SINKS

TWO ME\ DROWNED

SURVIVOR'S FIGHT FOR LIFE

ADELAIDE, December 24

Two tnoii wore drowned and a tliird was just able to struggle ashore through mountainous seas when the fishing cutter Ferret, from Victor Harbour, foundered in a heavy squall off Waitpinga Reach, South Australia, shortly alter midnight of December 22.

The men drowned were Walter Rumblelow, aged 39, married, and David Rum below, aged 32, married. Lionel Rumbelow, aged 29, married, w;,:i afterwards seriously .ill in the hospital, suffering from exposure and shook. Walter, David and Lionel Rum below were the crew of the Ferret and were returning from a fishing trip near ('ape Jervis. When opposite Waitpinga Reach, about ten miles from Victor Harbour, and a mile off shore, the Ferret was struck by a heavy squall. .VloiuitaiiiKUis sea worked up in a few minutes, and, according to Lionel Rum below, the boat turned a somersault and began to break up immediately.

Hearing a faint cry of, “Lionel Rum be low here; we’ve been wrecked,” Victor Honeymnn, farmer, of Waitpinga, rushed to the door and found Lionel Rumbelow in an exhausted condition. He told a graphic story. “A heavy .squall struck us and huge seas began to roll in toward us,” ho said. “In trying to ride en a great waive, Ilia Ferret turned completely over and immediately started to go to pieces. M.v brother, David, was thrown over the stern and I was tossed into the sea over the side. When I last saw Walter Rumbelow, my cousin, he was attending the engine. “The Ferret became submerged and I made a grab at the dinghy,” Mr Rumbelow continued. “I called to my brother and he grabbed it. also. By some means the dinghy had become freed, and, clinging desperately to it, David and I were driven ashore by mountainous seas. Nearing the shore wo were tossed about like corks, as great white breakers thundered on pop of thus. A dozen times we almost lost our grin, but we called to one another to hang on, because we knew that it was a matter of life and death.

“Time after time we though the rollers would wash us up on the beach, but eacli time the undertow carried us out again. At last wo were able to gain a footing. With water round our thighs, a huge breaker came in and flung, me lip on the beach, but I did not see David again. As I was coming .ashore my oilskin coat was washed over my head and T almost gave up, but I struggled on and eventually reached dry land. “I hardly knew what I was doing, but continued walking and crawling, and found myself in the Waitpinga River. With a shudder I thought I was back in the sea again. I must have been delirious. 1 can remember Dave speaking to me while in tlie sea, but T knew be was done. In the oitcli darkness I struggled over sandhills and through scrub a nd finally reached Honeyman’s.”