A DEED OE HEROISM.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2413, 10 December 1880, Page 4

A DEED OE HEROISM.

To those who know the nature of the chase after shivers still dutifully maintained by British cruisers off the African coast the story which comes from Her Majesty’s ship Wild Swan will certainly appear one of remarkable heroism. In the seas which wash that torrid shore abound almost every kind of sharks, together with many a monster without a name— and woe to the unfortunate individual who chances to fall in amongst them ! With a greedy haste that affords little time for escape, he is bitten in pieces, divided amidst the predatory herd, and disappears as completely as though he were the merest lobworm. Such an incident as this was the cause of the brave deed which has just been performed. Lying off the coast of Mozambique, the lookout on the Wild Swan espied a slave dhow, and chase was immediately given. In vain the piratical craft cracked on canvas and endeavored to escape ; the British man-of-war was too swift and too well handled for such an attempt to succeed, and presently the dhow was safe alongside. Then came the process of transferring the slaves which were on board the doomed vessel to her captor, an operation often of some difficulty in the treacherous African seas; and thus it came about that while the work was going on a little slave boy slipped from the ship’s side and fell into the water. It was but a moment, yet already the chance of a morsel had been marked, and one of the sharks which had closely followed the dhow in hope of assisting at some such disaster instantly darted upon the poor lad, and with one snap of the jaws bit off the right log at the knee. As the blood tinged the water, the attention of other monstcis of the same swarm was attracted, and one of these arriving on the scene, severed the other log of the boy. Just then an English sailor on tho Wild Swan, fully aware of all the peril he encountered, sprang overboard, armed only with a sheath knife, and so violently attacked the sharks, and so determinedly held his own in supporting the poor victim, that he was enabled to beat off his assailants, get the boy into a boat alongside the ship, and escape himself unhurt. Unhappily the injuries inflicted on the negro child had been so severe that he died the same evening. But the message which gives intelligence of the gallant deed adds that the sailor’s shipmates were loud, as well they might be, in praise of their comrade’s bravery and were making a movement to obtain him a satisfactory reward. We are told that the tars *of the Wild Swan when they saw what their shipmate daringly achieved, “very much applauded what he had done.” And well they might, for that fearsome dive iuto the African waters confers lasting credit upon the ship they sail in and the service to which they belong.— Homo paper.