TORPEDOED SHIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 76, 31 March 1941, Page 3

TORPEDOED SHIP.

SURVIVORS' ORDEAL. 40 HOURS IN LIFEBOAT. SVUNKV. March :!!». Pa-feiigers hi the ill-fated Napier Star, which was torpedoed when three day-, out from Liverpool. Mr. and Mrs. I', Fulton, have dually arrivrd safely in Australia. They were 111110112 th" 1 •"> survivors of the ship, which carried a complement of 9!>. and r-pcut -40 hours in a lifeboat before they were rescued by a Swedish ship. "We were not in convoy, as an accident delayed the Napier Star, and we were late leaving. She seemed to lie illfated from the b-jgiuiiitig of the voyage." said Mr-. Fulton. "We were toi'p-. deed ahotit •". o'clock al dusk, and as the ship" sank in h'ss than half an hour we did nut have time to save, anything. Fortunately we were well wrn|ipe<l mi and prepared fur anything to happen.There were two other women in tlie same boat as Mrs. Fulton, one of them U'illg an Australian. Mrs. Kae l.a-t. who was returning home with her husband. Dr. Last, of Adelaide. Five men died in the boat from exposure before they could be picked up. Among the passengers who were nut saved was Mr. C. (.'. Codlin. who had been London manager fur tlie "Argus" and ••Australasian." Ltd.. and his wife. "I knew both of them." said Mrs. Fulton, "and 1 saw them fur the last time as they pot into a lifeboat next to ours. "It was freezinglv cold, and we did not have anything to eat. although no one would have felt like food." Mrs. ■Fulton added. "It was ;1 terrible experience."" j Mrs. Fulton will return to London ! w hen her husband has completed his i business in Australia.