A SEA STORY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 27 August 1907, Page 4

A SEA STORY.

Tbe passengers of the Cun mi liner Carmania witnessed a thrilling incident on a recent voyage across from Liverpool to New York. When two days from New York tbe liner came up with a small open boat, with a man seated in the stern. There was a hurricane blowing, with blinding snow showers, and the nature ol the little boat could not very well be distinguished. It was too rough for the boat to be lowered, and the Carraania’s captain called lor a volunteer to swim out to the dinghy. A seaman named Breen promptly stepped forward, had a life-line fastened round his waist and dived overboard. He slowly fought his way 7 to the little boat and there hesitated, evidently able to clamber aboard. Lhe boat’s passenger gave him no help. In a moment, however, a great wave lifted him, threw him against the boat’s side, and the lurch carried him aboard. T.he man in the stern was clearly unconscious, and Breen took an oar from between his knees and skulled the Dinghy slowly to the side of the Carmania, while the passengers clambered on deck to cheer them. It was twenty-four hours before the rescued man revived sufficiently to tell his story. He was a fisherman named Vallet, belonging to St Malo, France. Nearly two months previously he had sailed from his home in a barquentine for a fishing expedition off the coast of Newfoundland. On May 26, with another fisherman, he left the barquentine in the dory to bring in the nets. They were caught in a hurricane, and quickly lost sight of their ship. Vallet’s companion was swept overboard by one of the heavy seas which struck their little craft, and Vallet was left alone adrift in the Atlantic. He had provisions for two days in the boat, and these were consumed by the end of the fifth day. From then until his rescue, on June 10, he had been withoutfood or water. He became unconscious, and of course remembered nothing of his rescue. Breen’s heroic conduct was suitably recognised.