At 2 P.m. on March 29, 189r, the steamship Rector,' of Grimsby, was returning home from a fishing voyage when she shipped a heavy sea, which washed a man named Wicks over board. The captain immediately ran full speed astern, but owing to the high sea the vessel sheered away from the man overboard, and it was found impossible to get near enough to throw him a line. John Robert Simpson, mate of the ship, picked up a life-buoy with a line fastened on board, and jumped to the man's rescue. Finding the rope too short, he cast it off, swam to Wicks, and placed the buoy over his head, leaving himself to the mercy of the sea, which was very heavy. A gale was blowing, and the ship was under sail as well as steam. A line, however, was at last caught by Simpson, and by this means they were eventually hauled on board. Simpson had previously obtained a bronze medal of the R oyal Humane Society for another act of bravery, and for this he was awarded the silver medal. The Board of Trade silver medal was also granted.
On August 16, 189o, about 12.3o P.M., two ladies had a narrow escape from drowning whilst bathing at Tramore, county Waterford. Mr. Charles Power, who ran out from an adjacent hotel on hearing the alarm, saw a young man with a life-buoy struggling in the sea about 15o yards from shore. Farther out, and' ully 25o yards from the beach, two ladies appeared to be in imminent danger, being rapidly carried out by the strong ebb tide. Mr. Power first swam to the young man, but finding that he was unable to swim, and could not dispense with the life. buoy, he turned on his back and towed the man with the life buoy out to where the ladies were, and then with the aid of the buoy he brought the three safely to land.
On February 13, 189o, three young ladies were skating on Carron Dam, near. Falkirk, when the ice broke and they all became immersed. Dr. Alexander Duncan Fraser, M.D., and Mr. Donald Lionel Fraser, engineer, after a prolonged struggle, aided by William Russell, an engine-driver, saved two of them, but the third perished, as did Mr. William Brown, M.A., who gallantly rushed to her rescue, but unfortunatc1) the ice again gave way.
On May 6, 189o, four young men, named Harold Trewfitt Farbrother, Alexander James Farbrother, Thomas Ernest Dickson and Bernard John Dickson, were in a sailing boat off the Isle of Sheppey, when a sudden shift of wind capsized the boat. The two Farbrothers were good swimmers, and being only zoo yards from the shore could easily have saved themselves, but knowing that neither of the Dicksons could swim, each brother took a boy on his back and attempted to swim ashore. Mr. Harold Farbrother appears to have gone down with the elder Dickson, and Mr. Alexander J. Farbrother very nearly lost his life in an unsuccessful attempt to save the younger boy. A boat, however, came and picked him up.
The accident resulted in the loss of three lives, viz. H. '1'. Farbrother, T. E. Dickson, and B. J. Dickson.
On August 26, I89o, several gentlemen were bathing in the sea at Kilkee, county Clare. One of them, Mr. Tayleur, who had been carried out by the heavy sea, found himself unable to return, and called out for help. Captain Walter McDonnell and Mr. J. A. Rutherford swam out to his assistance, but failed to bring him to shore owing to the force of the sea, and it seemed probable that all three would lose their lives. They, however, called out for a boat, and being good swimmers kept afloat and allowed themselves to drift with the tide. Mr. Tayleur, who was much exhausted, begged the others to leave him to his fate, but neither of them would do so. A wicker canoe was launched, and three gentlemen, at great personal risk and with considerable skill, got the boat through the heavy surf, and finally rescued all three.
On December 17, 1885, about 5.30 A.M., as the Ennerdale ' was rounding Cape Horn, an apprentice named Duncan McCullum fell from aloft into the sea, striking the rigging in his fall. Harry S. Pochin, an A.B., immediately jumped over board after him, but McCullum sank before he could reach the boy. The water was intensely cold, and Pochin was on the point of sinking when he was assisted, and kept afloat by Mr. Whistler, first mate of the vessel, who jumped overboard to his aid. Considerable delay occurred in launching a boat from the vessel, and both men were over forty minutes in the water. A huge albatross, which had hovered about the two men preparing to attack them, had to be driven off with a boat-hook.
Lieutenant-Colonel Goodwyn, East Lancashire Regiment, was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Humane Society for having, on July 29, 1884, jumped into the Red Sea with all his clothes on to try and save a boy who had fallen overboard from the 'Nubia.' After being twenty minutes in the water, here known to be infested with sharks, Major Goodwyn was picked up by the ship's boat without having succeeded in finding the lad.
Colonel R. C. Hart, V.C., was awarded the silver medal of the Royal Humane Society for saving a Frenchman from drowning in the harbour of Boulogne-sur-Mer on July 27, 1869, he himself having received on this occasion several severe wounds on the head and face from striking, in a leap from the pier, some sunken piles or rocks. Colonel Hart received a silver clasp for having on December 15, 1884, gone to the rescue of a gunner who was in immediate danger of drowning in the Ganges Canal at Roorkee, and whose life he assisted in saving.