A DOUBLE RESCUE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 148, 15 February 1932, Page 2

A DOUBLE RESCUE

HUSBAND AND WIFE DIYE INTO HARBOUR AFTER MAN. ALL THREE SAVED. SYDNEY, Wednesday. Watching in an agony of apprehen- ' sion, her sick husband preparing to plunge from a V/atson's Bay ferry to the rescue of a drowning man, last night, Mrs. Pixie Pratt suddenly handed her 10-months-old bahy to anotlier woman and herself dived in. Her husband hit the water a second later, and the eouple saved the man — Thomas Kennedy, of Elswick St., Leichardt. Mfs. Pratt, a good-looking woman, 28 years of age, related her trying experience to The Sun to-day. "Bruce (my husband) was 111, and I thought it would he :e f d ":f he dived in," she said. "I am a strong swimmer, hut all my life !I have had a dread that one night I would be faced with the .necessity of jumping into the black waters of the harbour. "I felt I was destined to do it, and last night, when that man was out there drowning, I just could riot stop myself. "We were on the top deck when we saw his white face in the water. We told the captain to stop the ferry, and ran to the lower deck. To Share His Fate.

"I gave Beverley, the baby, to a | girl in pink, when I saw my husband about to leap to the man's rescue. I told myself that I just could not bear to see him in the water while I was still on board. "I wanted to go with him, if he went, and suffer his fate. "All the time we were in the water I had a terrible fear of sharks. We couldn't see anything much, and I swam towards the man while my husband swam to secure a buoy which had been thrown overboard from the ferry. "Then the thought occurred to me that the man might clasp me around the neck, and drag me under. Bruce would have come to my aid, and we all might have drowned, so 1 made my way to where Bruce had the buoy, and we propelled it towards the man. "The rope broke when we were being pulled towards the ferry. My heart sank. I thought the end was near, and I wanted to be witli my baby. Another ferry approached. My husband was then under water, exhausted, and we were nearly killed by it. Previous Rescue. Mr. Pratt, who is editor of "The New Nation" magazine, is a year older than his wife. He was taken back to Watson's Bay ferry, where the girl in pink, faithful to her trust, was calmly refusing to hand ; over the baby to close friends of the Pratts. Mr. Pratt, on reaching home, drove to the Water Police Station with dry clothing for his wife. To-day, he is seriously ill in bed. "I'd do it again, though," he grinned, "but I'd take some clothing off first." Mrs. Pratt shuddered. "I hate that ; harbour, but I'd jump again if Bruce did," she said grimly. "He's wonderful, and very plucky. He saved my sister and me when we were washed off the rocks during a terrible storm two years ago at Rosa Gully." The Pratts, who have been married four years, live in Palmerston Avenue, Vaucluse. Mrs. Pratt was formerly Pixie O'Harris, well-kown artist, and her husband is the son of the Rev. R. Pratt, of Marriclcville. Kennedy is unable to say how he came to be in the water. It is pre- , sumed that he fell from a ferry.