A GALLANT RESCUE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LI, Issue 320, 11 January 1909, Page 4

A GALLANT RESCUE.

The attention of the world has again been directed to the courage and daring of British tars by their work of rescue in the Italian disaster. The following story of a gallant rescue by British tars, reported by the Xew York Army and Navy Journal, will therefore be read with interest:—The incident occurred during the typhoon at Hongkong' on July 27, in which twelve vessels and 1000 lives were lust. It is related by an ollicer of the British freight steamer Schuykill, which arrived iu Boston on October 15. While the cyclone was at its highest, and it was still a question whether the largest steamers in the port would survive the storm, the olli-;-ers of the Scnuykill noticed a vague pencil of light through the sheets of rain, lighting up a confusion of loose and drifting shipping. For the first two or three flashes they thought they were menaced with the new peril of lightning, but no detonation followed the flash. A lull in the rain showed one of the most gallant sights of the sea. The searchlight of the second-class cruiser Astraea was following one of her boats while it made a desperate struggle to reach the crew of a foundering Chinese junk. The Scliuykill's officers could hardly believe their eyes to see the ship's boat live. All their attention was rivcttcd on keeping their own steel craft afloat. The pencil of light, now bright, now dim, followed the boat as it was pulled by a crew of stout British tars andman''gerl with almost incredible cleverness by its officer. They saw it alongside the junk, saw the Chinese tumble into it half-dead from fright and fatigue, and disappear beyond the rays of the searchlight. Next morning they learned that the Chinese were landed safely further down the harbor, but that the boat ivas crushed like an egg-shell against the sea wall, though the sailors were saved 4 o a man. "And,'' concluded the officer who told the incident, "the traditions of the British Xavv were maintained."