Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 65, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1918 — SAVES SEAMAN’S LIFE [ARTICLE]

SAVES SEAMAN’S LIFE

Amateur Surgeon Amputates Leg With Clasp Knife. Steward I* Decorated for One of Most Brave and Remarkable Deeds of the War. London. —For amputating a man’s leg with a claspknife but still saving his life, Alfred William Furneux. a chief steward in the mercantile marine, has been decorated by the king. The story of his heroic conduct and skill form'one of the most remarkable of the many tales told since the beginning of the war. The following is an account of the services for which he received the Albert medal in gold: In April, 1917, the steamship in which Mr. Furneaux was serving was torpedoed by the enemy, and the legs of a Lascar, who was on the spot where certain deck plates had buckled and broken, were caught so firmly be-

tween the plates that he would have gone down with the ship. Mr. Furneaux. however, went to the man’s assistance and managed to get one leg out. but the other was nearly severed through above the knee. Finding it impossible to pull the leg out, Mr. Furneaux amputated it with an ordinary clasp knife and then carried the man to a boat. When In the boat he dressed the wound as well as possible and gave the life belt be was wearing to the wounded man. Mr. Furneaux also rendered first aid in the boat to another Lascar who was badly scalded. Mr. Furneaux was in imminent danger of losing his life in rendering the service.