GIRLS TO THE RESCUE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 207, 21 November 1927, Page 12

GIRLS TO THE RESCUE

SMALL YACHT CAPSIZES THREE YOUNG MEN SAVED Girls of the Auckland Grammar School and two mistresses played no small part in the rescue from the harbour on Saturday evening of three young men who were flung into the water by the capsize of their small yacht. The schoolgirls were returning from an outing to Beaclilands when Mr. N. Compton, in the launch Te Awa with the party of over 30 on board, noticed the plight of the young men. After clinging to their upturned boat for half an hour the trio was rescued in an exhausted condition by the launch which came on the scene by chance. The yacht, which was of the 14ft Y class type, was retuirning to Kohimarama after competing in the harbour races during tho afternoon. When in the vicinity of Orakei Wharf the little craft was struck by a sharp squall and capsized. The occupants, two sons of Mr. J. W. Andrew, of Kohimarama, and a friend, managed to swim to the swamped craft and to get a finer-holr. The launch was manoeuvred close to the wreck, and one young man was pulled aboard by a mistress, assisted by some of her charges. WRECKAGE FOULS PROPELLOR The yacht was then approached on the windward side, but the launch drifted too close to the rigging of the submerged boat, and got entagled in tho propellor, rendering the Te Awa powerless. Nevertheless, with the aid of the girls, who were behaving in an exemplary manner, Mr. Compton managed to get the other two yachtsmen to safety. Meantime, the helpless launch had drifted perilously close to a reef, but fortunately the wind and seas moderated, and the anchor held. Mr. Compton then changed into a bathing costume, and tried to cut the obstruction from the screw, while the schoolgirls attended to the shivering and exhausted yachtsmen by massaging their limbs, and clothing them in their school blazers. Dater in the evening a man rowed out to the launch, and news of the accident was conveyed to tho waterfront police, who promptly dispatched a fast launch to the assistance of the disabled, motor-boat. Although the Te Awa rescued the three men about 6 p.m., it was after JO p.m. before the girls were landed in the city. -