U.S.A. REACTION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 181, 2 August 1941, Page 14

U.S.A. REACTION

RESCUED NURSES SURVIVORS TElili STORY SAN FRANCISCO. July 26. The story of 12 days and 11 nights in an open boat in thc North Atlantic after their ship, en route to England, had been torpedoed, was told by survivors landed in Norfolk, Virginia, by a United States Navy transport. Four were American Red Cross nurses and the fifth a marine corporal who were picked up by an American destroyer on July 5 and taken to Reykjavik. Iceland, for medical care. Put ashore at the Norfolk navy ! yard, the group was removed to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital. Naval officers said at the time they were taken aboard the destroyer they were puttering from nervous exhaustion and some were ill from gangrene. The nurses were Marion Blissett, of Detroit. Michigan; Victoria Pelc, of Auburn, New York; Rachel St. Pierre, of Boston; and Lilian M. Pesnicak. of Albany, New York. The marine was Corporal E. H. MacAllistcr. The nurses said the torpedo attack occurred at 7.1"> a.m. on June 21. without warning. Two minutes after the first torpedo struck the port side another ripped into the vessel and the ship sank six to eight minutes later. The nurses said a submarine came to the surface, the conning tower opened and an officer, speaking perfect English, asked the name of the ship, the port, from which it sailed, its cargo and destination. Alter a cimferenro among the submarine officers the nurses said officers of the torpedoed ship rejected a proposal that the women be taken aboard thc submersible and the submarine disappeared with a promise to "send a .ship to pick you up." At this time they estimated they were about 100 miles off thc coast of Greenland. Thc boat carrying the four nurses was sighted by a United States destroyer on July 5. Thc women's account said they were using their last signal when the destroyer responded to their call. The day of the sinking they sighted another convoy but distress rockets were unsighted. The nurses said they saw the submarine come to the sulfate again later ihnt clay, nut it paid them no heed. "\Ve started away from the ship with one hard tack each." the nurses said. "Later this was cut to one-half. At noon every day the captain opened a can of meatballs, divided equally among 11 persons. We were given about soz of water over each period of 24 hours. We celebrated the Fourth of July by sitting in the rain."