ACCIDENT AND PLUCKY RESCUE IN SYDNEY HARBOUR

Temuka Leader, Issue 227, 22 January 1880, Page 2

ACCIDENT AND PLUCKY RESCUE IN SYDNEY HARBOUR

j The Sydney 'correspondent of tliV Press writes;—“ I do uof, often ironII; to record accidents, even when attended with fatal results, occurihg to people boating in the harbour. These are of so constant occurence that the record would become monotonous. But there were incidents connected with one the other day which invest it with exceptional interest. Four young people, two men" and two girls, of whom one couple, Mary Keating (16) and William Cantrell (21) were to lie married dining the following week, went a-boating, and a sudden gust upset their skiff and plunged them into the water. The saloon steamer Emu, which plies to Manley, was distant about 400 yards at the time and the. accident was noticed by those on board of her, hundreds of passengers being on the steamer. She at once was headed to the spot, and amidst intense excitement a boat was lowered to rescue the four unfortunates who were still afloat, the young men bravely struggling to support tbeir sweethearts. At this moment a shocking contretemps occured. The boat lowered from the Emu either was unplugged, or had been so long out of the wafer as to be leaky at the seams, and instantly began to fib when cast off and swamped in less than two minutes, and tire boatmen, not being swimmers, having +o cling to the keel. Meanwhile a couple of the Emu’s passengers had not waited for the boat to be lowered, but bad leaped overboard, and one of them, a Dane, named Hansen, with a life-buoy be had seized before plunging swam to the strugling group. When he got near to them, he saw one of the wemen, Mary Keating, just disappearing beneath the water. He then swam toward Sarah McDonald,who was fit the time dinging on to the

capsized boat ; as soon as she saw that he was close enough, she let go her hold of tin l boat, and slipped into his arms, and he kept her up by the aid of the lif* buoy. A short time elapsed;; and the boat from th« Emu then came, up, and : Miss McDonald was dragged into it ; / hut she had no sooner got there than tho boat filled and went down, striking. Hansen on the head and stunning him for a few seconds. He then got hold; of Miss McDonald again, and as by this time oth'T life-buoys had been brought to the spot, he managed to secure another lif-buoy, and by this means was enabled to keep her up till the boat from

the schooner Escort cam**, and < nee more rescued her, and picked up tinothers also. Hansen then swam ha-k to Emu, and, as may be imagined, by the lime he reached her, he was in a very exhausted condition." A line was thrown to him, but he was so weak that he was unable to get on board, and he had to remain hanging there for some,time before any one thought of going to Ins assistance, and hauling him on board, which, however, was done at length.. He had the whole of his t otbes on during th,e t ; me he was in the water, and win n he got on board no one offered him any refreshment, and though he asked the captain for - dry clothes he could get nothing, and he had to remain cold and wet unti’ they got to Manley. r ihe captain of the Emu justifies himself for bringing the steamer closer than 200 .yards by 'alleging that the i wash 5 of the paddles would have drowned even the two who have hern rescued-.