BRITISH SEAMEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 174, 25 July 1941, Page 7

BRITISH SEAMEN

GREAT TRADITION LIVES ON-

Rec. 10 a.m. LONDON, July 24 Behind the phrase "and I shoniri particularly lik-e to recommendl "so often recurring in reports by captains of merchant ships attacked bv the enemy, lie many stories of gallantry. One captain, whose shfp was attacked by aircraft, wrote n his report: "I should particularly h k o e \°t TT m , en( J the gorier. After the attack I asked him if he was all right. He said he was, and insisted on carrying the chief officer, who was badly wounded, from the bridge to the deck below. Then the gunner col lapsed and died, and only then did we realise he was fatallv wounded."

Another report reads: "The chief engineer, who has been torpedoed three times, climbed on top of the boilers to investigate a leak in the boiler-room, although there was a possibility of the boilers exploding beneath him at any moment." Such reports, which are among the many received and chronicled by the naval authorities, show how the British Merchant Servic? is living up to its centuries-old traditions.