STIRRING TALE OF THE SEA.
SWEPT OVERBOARD IN MIDOCEAN. FROM AUXILIARY SCHOONER. To be torn from the ship’s rail and hurled into mid-ocean in a raging sea and to live to tell the tale .has been the experience of Mr. John William Laing, who, accompanied by Mrs. Laing, is at present spending a holiday in Foxton as the guest of Mr. and Mrs. R. Owen. In conversation with our representative Mr. Laing, who for the past twenty years has followed the calling of the sea, sometimes in the capacity of skipper, sometimes as mate and sometimes in the forcastle, had a stirring story to tell. After three months ashore he signed on as an able seaman on the auxiliary schooner, Piri, in the latter end of September for a trip to Australia. After being held up 18 days the Piri, which is only 115 tons net, set out .from Grcymouth for Sydney on September 23rd on what proved to be one of the most adcenturous trips ever experienced by any member of the crew of the little vessel. Raging westerlies caught the Piri as soon as the vessel cleared the New Zealand coast and continued all the way across the Tasman. Decks were awash practically throughout the trip and the voyage lasted five days longer than usual. When the Piri finally made her way into Sydney Harbour the jib topsail was in shreds and splintered woodwork, where a fancy scroll once proudly protruded as a figurehead, ihore testimony of the vessel’s gruelling trip. It was on the third day out from Greymouth that death passed by Mr. Laing and a companion, ordinary seaman, William Graham West. Both men were on deck about 5 p.m. when a terrific sea was running. Graham was returning from taking a message to the en-gine-rooni: and Mr. Laing was making his way along the deck to take over The wheel. He saw a huge'sea bearing down on the craft and gripped the top-rail with all his might with his hands at the same time twisting his feet around the lower rail. The sea crashed over him, wrenched his body around, breaking his grip on the rail and he was swept right across the deck and over the other rail in a fraction of a second. Pounded almost to insensibility by the buffeting he had received by the sea, he came up to the surface, and shaking the spray from his eyes saw the-Piri some distance away. Clothed in a heavy singlet, two shirts, vest, guernsey, sox, pants and oil skin he had very little freedom of movement and with his thigh sea boots acting like sea anchors he had great difficulty in keeping afloat. At the time he was swept overboard he was unaware of the whereabouts ;of his mate, Graham, hut on regaining the surface after his sudden immersion he heard a noise behind him and saw Graham struggling in the water. Captain Watt and the second mate (Mr. Bradney) had been eyewitnesses of the whole affair and the mate quickly seizing two lifebuoys, threw them to the two men in the water, while the Captain with remarkable skill and seamanship, manoeuvred the ship around in a circle —no mean feat in the sea that was running. Mr. Laing noticed one of the buoys thrown from the ship away up on the crest of a huge wave but was unable to make it owing to having to swim against the sea so he struck out for the other buoy away to leeward. How he covered the two chains separating him from the buoy he does not know, hut on reaching it he swung it around for his Companion who had also made his way in that direction. Clinging to the overburdened buoy the two men had great difficulty in keeping their heads above water and as they emerged from the seas, which swept over them from time to time, they occasionally got a glimpsejhi 1 the top mast of the Piri. After what seemed an interminable time the vessel was manoeuvered alongside them and willing hands soon had them aboard again. “It was impossible to launch a boat in the sea that was running,” said Mr. Laing, “and we owe our lives to the able manner in which the Piri was handled by Captain Watt. All I lost was my seaboots.”
Questioned as to whether he entertained any fears of not regaining the ship during his immersion, Mr. Laing said that, strange to say, at no time did he have any fear that he would be drowned. He felt the strain of the experience during the next few days however. They were both practically done when they were hauled aboard and the skipper also showed signs of the severe strain imposed on him. They were in the water exactly 20 minutes.
“You were very lucky,” said our representative, “and I suppose you will be content to stay ashore after such an experience us that?” “W(e were lucky, alright,” said Mr. Laing, “for if the sea which carried us overboard had crashed us into the scuppers on the other side of the vessel we would have been badly smashed up. I have been at sea over 20 years now and it will have to be a good job that will keep me ashore now.” Although Mr. Laing passed the matter off as a mere incident still the experience is 'one that he will be unable to forget for many a long day and at nights he is still haunted by very vivid memories of that terrifying twenty minutes spent “overboard” in mid ocean.
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Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3886, 20 December 1928, Page 3
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938STIRRING TALE OF THE SEA. Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3886, 20 December 1928, Page 3
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