Papuan Missionary's
p. 25 · Read in the full issue
Narrow Escape
REV. S. H. Dewdney, L.M.S. missionary at Orokolo, Papua, had a narrow escape from drowning recently, when a whaleboat overturned in heavy surf.
There is no reef around Orokolo, and seas sweeping into the Gulf of Papua prevent steamers from lying close in to the shore —stores and mails have to be taken off in small boats. In August, the M.V. “Lakatoi” hove to about a mile off the mission station and Mr. Dewdney, with 10 “boys”, launched the whaleboat and set out for her. Safely through the first two lines of breakers, the boat capsized suddenly in a particularly large sea.
When the natives came to the surface, Mr. Dewdney could not be seen. After swimming around for a time, one of the boys dived under the whaleboat, now floating upside down, and found the missionary, weak after the buffeting he had received. When the party reached shore it was discovered that one of the native crew was missing; subsequently his body was recovered.
Mr. Archie S. Glen, formerly of Rotuma, who is well-known in Fiji and Wallis Is land, and is now a resident of Sydney, has been elected a member of the Pacific Islands Society.