ADRIFT IN 12-FOOT BOAT

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2732, 13 May 1924, Page 3

ADRIFT IN 12-FOOT BOAT

FIVE CHILDREN IN DIRE PERIL. Christchurch, Ysterday. A twelve-foot dinghy containing live children, the eldest a girl of 13, and the youngest two years old, the family of J. Burns, chief signalman at Adderiey Head, was blown out into Lyttelton Harbour during a heavy southerly squall this morning. The little children were paddinig near the jetty at Little Port Cooper when 'a squal caught the litlie craft. From the harbour the eldest girl, lsobel, managed to row the boat into comparative shelter under Adderiey Head and dropped anchor. The anchor, however, commenced to drag. lsobel then dived overboard and tried to swim ashore to make a line fast to the rocks. She could not make a lauding so she swam back to the dinghy and with the greatest difficulty regained the boat. A heavy sea was running and she was hanging on to the gunwale for half an hour before a big sea swept her back into the boat. The alarm was given at Lyttelton and the Harbour Board’s tug was manoeuvred to where the dinghy was tossing about near the rocks and the children were hauled aboarct. in the course of rescue operations one of the tug’s crew was knocked overboard but was quickly rescued. The children appeared little the worse for their adventure.