“MAN THE LIFEBOAT!”

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2391, 5 January 1909, Page 6

“MAN THE LIFEBOAT!”

A SUMNER RESCUE. MAN;S PERILOUS EXPERIENCE Great excitement was created in Sumner,near Christchurch,last Fndaj afternoon when the Cave Rock sounded the lifeboat alarm. There was a large crowd of holiday makers on the beach, and there urns a rush to the Cave Rock to find out the cause of the alarm. It was discovered that a man was standing on a rock at Whitewash Head, surrounded by water. As it happened, most of the members of the ‘regular crew of the lifeboat were away holiday-making, but the boat was quickly manned by those members of the crew' who had remained in Sumner for the day and bv other men who volunteered their services.

There was a very trough sea on, and tho task of-getting across the bar was especially difficult. The boat got safely over, but had then to surmount verv high breakers, and to face a very boisterous and high sea. Unfortunately, one of the volunteer members of the crew' unshipped his rowlock, and with the handicap of one oar lost the work of. the party was rendered the more arduous) After a hard pull of close upon one ihour Whitewash Head was reached, the progress of the rescuing party being watched with great excitement by those on the beach. The man on the rock was -discovered to be .Mr. T. Dacre, a resident of Sumner. He went out fishing m the (morning, and was left by a fisherluan’s boit on an outlying rock, about a. chain and a half from the mainland, the fisherman’s crew intending to return for him ill the afternoon, which they did, but owing to the roughness of the sea could not reach him. When his plight bconno known the alarm for the lifeboat was sounded, and it succeeded in rescuing him from his perilous position.