LUNATIC DIVES TO THE SHARKS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 200, 12 November 1927, Page 10

LUNATIC DIVES TO THE SHARKS

TRAGEDY IN MID-OCEAN On board the P. and O. liner Bendigo, homeward bound from Australia, two lunatics engaged in a violent struggle on deck. The stronger of the two broke from the other's arms find, flinging himself overboard, was lost in a sharkinfested sea. The Bendigo took on board three lunatics at Adelaide for repatriation to England, and they were placed in the starboard isolation ward. When the vessel was rounding Cape Verde, in a calm sea. on August 26, one of the men, James Wilson, 40, who had been chatting with his companions in the isolation ward, was suddenly seized with a fit of restlessness. John McCormack, one of his com* ; panions, saw Wilson creeping toward ! the deck, and cried. “Where are you ! going, Jim?” Wilson shouted out •Home.” and rushed on deck, pursued by McCormack. The two men struggled for a few seconds, and then Wilson threw his opponent to the deck and took a flying leap into the sea. The cry, “Man overboard,” was raised, the liner stopped, and two boats were lowered, but no trace of the missing man was found. “We searched for him in small boats for a long time,” I stated a member of the ship’s crew, | “but There was little hope of finding him. for at Cape Verde is alive i with sharks,