Bronze Medal For Brave
p. 59 · Read in the full issue
Papuan
From Our Own Correspondent.
PORT MORESBY, September 24.
TABUA, a Papuan native of Mabaduan, west of the Fly River, in the Western Division, and formerly an employee of the pearling- fleet at Thursday Island, has been awarded the Royal Humane Society’s bronze medal for his heroic efforts to save the lives of members of the crew of the pearling lugger Rhodopis.
On March 12, 1934, a cyclone swept the northern coast of Queensland and the Rhodopis, with six other luggers, Waikato, Mossman, Quest, Lotus, Mildred and Way wego, overturned off Melville Island. Over 60 lives were lost, three of whom were Europeans. Only three members of the Rhodopis’s crew of 14 survived—three natives of Mabaduan, one being Tabua, who received the medal.