DOGGED SEAMEN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 247, 18 October 1941, Page 7

DOGGED SEAMEN

TRAWLER'S BRUSH WITH NAZI Rec. 11 a.m. RUGBY, Oct. 17. The crew of the trawler Ben Screel, from North Shields, by skill and courage, saved their ship and themselves from an attack by a German twin-engined bomber. The first bomb blew off the rudder, damaging the stern posts and.snapped; one blade of the propeller and the tips off the other. Meanwhile, the Ben Screel was filling rapidly and the men made ready to launch the boat. A high swell was running and it was necessary to bring the trawler stern on to it to get the boat away, but the rudder was blown away.

Thinking quickly, in a hail of bullets, the skipper got over the side but, by using a winch to veer and haul, the trawlboard was made to act as a jury rudder and the Ben Screel came slowly stern on to the swell. The trawler continued to fire at the aircraft, which eventually turned for home, losing height and with smoke pouring from it.

Steering with the improvised rudder and the pumps barely keeping pace with the incoming water, the Ben Screel made for the Tyne at the best speed her crippled propeller could give her. Doggedness and fine seamanship nursed her to safety. Later the skipper said the ship could not have lasted more than 60 minutes longer when she reached port, but she lives to fight—another day.