HEROIC GIRL

Shannon News, 17 April 1928, Page 4

HEROIC GIRL

HER PART IN SHARK TRAGEDY.

DRAGGED MAN FROM MONSTER’S JAWS.

SYDNEY, April 5

Tragedies due to attacks by sharks, such as was experienced at Newcastle, New South Wales, this week, are apt to loom enormously in the public eye, since their details are so gruesome. It is nevertheless a fact that less than one in .100,000 bathers are taken off New South Wales beaches in surfing- seasons, and whether the spectacle of thousands bathing to-day where one was mangled yesterday is a proof of the bravery of the white race, or of their foolhardiness, is .an open question.

Such is-, the case at Merewether, whore three shark tragedies have occurred now r . One day the thrill of hbrror, the next the same old rush into the surf.

The victim of the last tragedy was., Arthur Lane (28), a company manager, who w r as taken while only 20 yards from tlMfe beach. As in most former instances the episode jjvas distinguished by the bravery of another individual, who, despite the awful risks taken, plunged in and literally tore the man from the jaw's of his attacker.

More honour attaches to this instance, perhaps, since the rescuerwas a girl, Miss Lucy Donaldson, of Brisbane. ,

The tragedy occurred at 5.40 p.m., when dusk was fallilng - Incidentally warnings are issued regularly every year against bathe'rs entering the w r ater about dusk, since that is the hour when sharks. and other fish Come close inshore for their food. Miss Donaldson and Miss Challen were sitting on the beach w r hen Lane came down for h*i3 regular afternoon swim. As he passed the girls, both of whom were old friends, he invited them to come in with him, and the trio went * to the water’s edge together. There were others on the beach at the time, but none in the water. The girls lingered on the water’s edge, but Lane plunging under a breaker, sw'am out towards the large combers. He had gone but 20 yards when he cried out “Help—a shark!” and at the same time Miss Donaldson saw him dragged under the wrater. Without any hesitation whatever, she plunged in to his assistance. By the time she reached the spot the water was dyed red with Lane’s blood and he was putting up an epic struggle with the monster. ; Miss Donaldson grasped him by. one arm and tugging fiercely, literally dragged him away from the jaws .of the shark. «

He was, of course, quite helpless, and she was pulling him towards the shore when a young man who had been in the siirf sheds rushed in and assisted her to complete the job. Miss Donaldson did not let her great work rest there. She ram to a house nearby, got a sheet, which she tore into strips, and when- the ambulance arrived a, few minutes later, she was tying up Lane’s ghastly wounds.

Some idea of the damage done m the short time that the shark was able to savage him may be gained from his injuries which ins|uded a severed right ' forearm, severely mutilated right thigh, severe lacerations to the calves of both legs, and part of the left foot bitten off. Lane died on the way tq hospital, though he was conscious when extricated from the shark’s jaws. Several witnesses of the tragedy claim that there was more than one shark concerned in the attack on the unfortunate company manager, and corroborate their claim by the fact that shoals of sharks have been coming close into the beach every night for a week past.

Miss Donaldson was a modest hero. She kept her head until Lane was taken away in the ambulance, then collapsed from shock. Later in the evening she consented to be interviewed; but. beyond corroborating what others had said, belittled her own part in the affair. | Some recognition of her act will undoubtedly bo made.