HE WAS READY!

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 8

HE WAS READY!

OLDEST SURVIVOR

NEARLY TOOK HIS STICK. "NEVER SAW SUCH TRANQUIL , . PEOPLE." . . It. takes more than a mine, a sinking ship and eight hours in an ■ open boat to ruffle a Britisher! Take the case of John Stewart Browne, 87 years of age, a South Australian, who served in sail way back in '71, and who was the oldest survivor of the Niagara. Though he was in bed when the explosion occurred lie took time to put his false teeth in, to got his glasses,- his clothes and overcoat, a rug and waterproof and his torch before he left his cabin. "I was going to take my stick, but then I thought they might laugh at me," Due said. To talk to Mr. Browne was to know that here was a man who would not be ruffled by any circumstances. Sparely built, erect and with a trim white Imperial, he spoke of the disaster as something to be expected in war time; something in which he could take a detached interest—and from which he could get quite a lot of humour. Take the matter of his faUe teeth. "I thought we might be some time in open boats," ho said, "and you can imagine what it would be like trying to oat hard biscuits without them!" Mr. Browne said that although he had not expected any emergency lie had realised that "there was a war on." So ho took a torch with him. -when he went on the Niagara, and when he was getti.ig ready for bed lie folded his clothes and placed them with his boots a"nd overcoat on- the settee in his cabin. He had a rug and a waterproof strapped in a bundle also. Thought of Children. "I was half awake when I heard the explosion," he said. "I thought it was a torpedo and expected to hear another explosion at any moment. I got out of Twd, took my torch and put on my overcoat. Then I remembered that there lave been many lives lost in wrecks through people being locked in their 'cabins with the door jammed; so I threw a pillow in the opening of my cabin, door to hold it open. I then gathered up my clothes and boots under my arm. I had a hand free and I thought that there would probably be children who might ho cold so I took the rug and waterproof, too."

As an old seafarer he took a "professional interest," he said, in what followed. All the passengers had gathered in the lounge above and there were somo funny sights to be seen with people in all sorts of attire —including some men who were wrapped only in blankets "like Maoris." Nobody knew just what had happened, but they were •told to stay in the lounge and all obeyed until the order came to "abandon ship." "I have travelled quite a bit, and I have seen some emergencies before," he said, "but I can say that I have never seen such a tranquil lot of people. The officers were splendid. They didn't rush round bullying people with 'Get liere' and 'Get there.' They just went round quietly telling people that there were plenty of boats and that there was nothing to worry about. All settled, down, and there was not the slightest sign of panic." "Nobody Hurried Unduly." There had ueen no time for boat drill after the boat sailed at 11 p.m., and, of course, nobody knew where their v boafc stations were. The people took things quietly, though, and moved from boat to boat as they saw them filling up until everybody was in place. Mr. Browne was in the second to last full boat that got away. Nobody was hurrying unduly, he said. The last stages of the drama were full of incident, with the moon riding high over a calm sea and everything in view of the watchers on the boats. Seated at the side of his boat a few hundred yards distant from the ship, Mr. Browne watched it settle down slowly on a • fairly level keel. They thought it was going to float, but then |

suddenly, it tilted over nearly on its side. Ten minutes later it seemed to "squirm" in the -water; the'stern lifted out of the water, and the Niagara slid down to-the bottom. ..-.•■■:■■ All the boats were more or ■ less grouped and they talked to one another. One boat that came alongside had fewer people in it, so Mr. Browne and some others stepped over into it to make more room in the boat in which they were originally. It was a tale then of some anxiety, some disappointment, and of raised and lowered hopes as they drifted round under sail waiting to be picked up. . ■: ■■ . • . "Tribute to Captain." They could not understand, said Mr. Browne, why they were left in the open boats when there were rescue ships in the vicinity, but there was little complaint, and they all understood and appreciated the reason when they were told of it later. They knew they would be rescued for they saw one 'plane come over, and then several others. They were djjappointcd, though, when they saw a big ship come towards them and then turn away again. They heard afterwards that she had been ordered to keep away.