THRILLING RESCUE AT SEA.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2769, 26 March 1910, Page 7

THRILLING RESCUE AT SEA.

CAPTAIN’S COOLNESS

?\liohae! Henry Jtvan (says the “New York World”), an able seaman on the 'Philadelphia, was washed overboard by a wave and picked up in nine minutes during a westerly gale and a high rolling sen To his own coolness, and the seamanship of Captain A. It. Mills, Ryan, who is a Baltimorean of ntliletic build, owes his life. Tlie American liner, leaving Southampton on January 8, had reached the Jongitude of 27 west. The passengers were at luncheon and Captain Mills on the bridge. The ship had dipped up a lot of water on the down side of a wave, when a gangway went adrift. Tlie bo’sun, Ernest Sargent, with five hands, was ordered to secure it. Captain Mills had taken the precaution to slow down, and to this order the hero of this tale owes his life. Another plunge of the bowsprit, another lump of a sea, a. wave-swept deck and all the, watch were down grabbing for gear, or stauneheon, or rail. Ryan went overboard through the open gangway. The. captain, from the bridge, caught liis first sight of him on a heaving swell abaft the bridge. He let the ship- go on a bit to allow the man to clear the screws. Charles Lenz, able seaman, the “deckman,” was just where he should have been —on his job. Lenz is an inventor, the patentee of a quick-release life-buoy. Here was tlie inventive sailor's chance to prove the value of his own device—an opportunity which he had been waiting for years. The buoys wer© all strung along the ship’s rails. Lenz quickly seized one- and flung it so that it fell within four fathoms of tlie swimming Ryan, who, still encased in oilskins and sou’wester, had kicked off his rubber boots. Through the salrton ports a steward, gazing seaward between courses, had glimpsed the struggling man outside. He raised the alarm within. All passengers jumped up and ran to the ports or rails. To lbw'er a boat in such a sea was impossible. “Poor man, he has no chance,” everybody ,<?aid. The ship, now reversed, was going back to where Ryan was bobbing. He deliberatelv swam for the buoy, thrust his arm through it, and finally got within it. Captain Mills said l there was one chance —onei in a thousand. He would bark until the ship was abeam of the sailor, and make the Philadelphia a lee for Rvan.' An error in judgment meant that the plucky seaman would surely lose the number of his mess. As soon as lie got the sailor dead ab^ain Captain Mills stopped his engines and let the wind blow the steamer down sidewise upon the cool seaman. A gangway was uushirwod amidships, and steady hands readv with, a heavy line. A sea ladder was oyer the side, But Captain Mills judged' that Ryan had not sufficient strength to climb it. A sailorman running along the rail, lowered the bite of the heaving line into the man’s benumbed hands. A shout arose' from the deck. Tlie passengers cheered _ again and again. But something displeased the nblegmatic Ryan. He looked at the bowline knot on-the-ropes critically, and then sang up from tlie; water. .“What lobster made this knot? This is no shipshape way to make a bowline on a bight.” Clinging with one hand to the heaving line.' ho labored with bloodless fingers to unloose tlie knot. It seemed an eternity to both crew and passengers. Some of his shipmates say Ryan was five minutes making the bowline afresh. At length he had adjusted the knot to his satisfaction. He slipped it over his head and under his arms, while the amateur photographers got busy snapshotting him at all stages of his ascent and arrival back aboard, the self-conscious Ryan doing his share or tho posing; Some of the women could have hugged the dripping sailor. Dr. Henderson gave him a good strong draw at a brand'- bottle, ana Ryan was soon on watch again, while. the passengers returned below to finish their luncheon. “That thing couldn’t happen again in a blue moon,” said Captain Mills. “If we’d!,been going at full speed Ryan would have lost the number of his mess, sure.” Captain Mills says the rescue took just lime minutes.