Star of Courage

• Awarded on: October 3, 1977
• Invested on: December 02, 1977

Susumu Nomura, S.C.
Star of Courage
Ted Bruce, M.B.,
William Gaunt, M.B.
Wayne Hisashi Takasaki, M.B.
Ralph Weick, M.B.
Medal of Bravery

On 3 October 1975, when a cabin cruiser with four persons aboard capsized at Steveston, British Columbia, several fishermen, at the risk of their lives, answered the call for help. Susumu Nomura attempted to manoeuvre his seiner Sea Dance between the cruiser and a breakwater, but a swelling sea dashed both his boat and the cruiser against the rocks and the seiner foundered. Undeterred, he scrambled aboard the cruiser and launched a rubber dinghy in search of the owner who had been thrown overboard. The dinghy proved useless in the storm, and the rescuer was shortly taken aboard another seiner manned by Wayne Takasaki. The two fishermen continued the search for the victim until forced by the tide to abandon the area. By this time the cabin cruiser had sunk and operations were being carried out by several other fishing boats to rescue two other passengers. One of the latter was found clinging to the mast of Mr. Nomura's seiner, but heavy seas prevented all approaches to the rocks. The owner of another boat, William Gaunt, managed by reversing his engine to reach the man and take him aboard. Then Ted Bruce and Ralph Weick, crew members on board still another seiner, Our Own, saved the life of a woman, who had been washed on to the breakwater. The men boarded a skiff which was attached by a three-hundred-foot line to the seiner and rowed to the rocks. At the jetty, Mr. Bruce remained in the skiff to prevent its going aground, while his companion scrambled on the rocks. The survivor was brought to the skiff and the craft was then pulled by winch to the seiner. All attempts to find the two other occupants of the cabin cruiser were in vain.