Star of Courage

• Awarded on: January 10, 1983
• Invested on: March 04, 1983

Firefighter Ronald Rowe, S.C.
Captain Thomas James Worrall, S.C.
Star of Courage

On the morning of 11 September 1980, Capt. James Worrall and firefighter Roland Rowe, of the Dunville (Ontario) Volunteer Fire Department, displayed outstanding courage at the scene of a boating accident. When a sailboat ran aground on a shoal in Lake Erie, near Port Maitland, heavy seas caused the craft to capsize eight hundred metres from shore. Two people were seen clinging desperately to what little remained above water. The two firemen promptly answered the call for help and with much difficulty launched a small powerboat on their second attempt. With considerable skill, firefighter Rowe steered the boat into the eighty-kilometre-per-hour winds, labouriously approaching the stricken vessel. Three-metre waves battering the sailboat made closing extremely dangerous, but on the fourth attempt Capt. Worrall was able to grasp the railings forming a human bridge with his body. The couple then struggled over him into the rescue. Ronald Rowe successfully manoeuvred to shore, James Worrall bailing all the way. But for the firemen's united efforts the exhausted victims could not have remained afloat much longer - their ordeal had lasted almost five hours.