SAVED BY 20 SECONDS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 171, 10 October 1927, Page 12

SAVED BY 20 SECONDS

UNEMPLOYED MAN’S BRAVERY The thrilling rescue of a seaman from being crushed to death against the side of a ship was watched on a recent night at Newport, Monmouthshire. A sailor who jumped from the quay to board the steamship Cambrian Baroness, lying about 10ft off, missed the ladder and fell into the dock. Mr. Frank Hopkins, an unemployed man, of Frederick Street, jumped into the water, found the man by the light of an electric torch shone from the deck, and held him, intending to take him up the ladder. He also slipped and both disappeared. Mr. Hopkins appeared again and seized the sailor and was taking him up the ladder when the ship moved towards the quay. Spectators urged him to drop the sailor and make his own safety secure, but he responded, “No, I will fetch, him up too.” The ship was still moving towards the quay wall and both men were in great peril of being crushed when Mr. Hopkins levered himself up by the quay wall and landed the sailor and himself safely amid cheers, and 20 seconds before the gap closed. Mr. Hopkins, who served throughout the war, has been unemployed for 20 months, and was on the dock in the hope of getting a job. Efforts are to be made to obtain official recognition of his bravery.