DAKAR ESCAPE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 280, 26 November 1941, Page 10

DAKAR ESCAPE

ENGINEER'S RUSE

NORWEGIAN EXPLOIT

PATROL BOAT OUTSPEEDED

This story of the escape or a Norwegian merchant ship from Dakar. French West Africa, after fourteen months of internment is told by its Norwegian skipper. Hte ship Is now working in the Allied cause.

(By a NORWEGIAN SEA CAPTAIN)

LONDON

"The engine is ready, sir. We can go at any time you like." The speaker was the chief engineer of our motor vessel, lying in Dakar harbour. "Ready!" I exclaimed. "What the hell do you mean? It's impossible." The reader will easily understand my incredulity. Our ship had arrived at Dakar with a cargo of rice from Saigon toward the end of May, 1940, and it was now fourteen months since the ship had been immobilised by the French authorities by removal of her starting pipes. Like many other ships, the collapse of France had caught her in a French por". and there she was likely to remain until the end of the war

Well-Concealed Plot

The chief engineer, however, had other ideas. From the beginning he had plotted to make the ship navigable, but so fearful was he of discovery of his plans that he took only the second engineer into his confidence. , Together they worked, making dummy replicas of the starting pipes and plotting for an opportunity to substitute them for the real ones which were brought aboard only under most stringent supervision. Their big chance came. The original pipes were brought aboard to enable the pistons to be moved in order to keep the vessel seaworthy. Watching over them was a French naval engineer. There was not a chance to switch the dummies till the bell was struck for dinner.

'It is the same here as in the said the chief engineer, u hen the bell goes, so do we." Then he disappeared, leaving the Frenchman on watch. Shortlv afterward the chief engineer shouted through a tube inviting the Frenchman to join him in a little refreshment. It seemed safe enough, so the guard" went, and then the second engineer slipped in and changed the pipes. Hurried Conversations It was then for the first time that the chief engineer told me what he had done, and I had no plan to meet the situation. Shortly afterwards the captains of two other Norwegian ships held up in port called on me. I asked them to join in an attempt get away. We decided to chance it. The captain, chief engineer and a sailor from one ship, and the captain, chief engineer, steward and boatswain of the other ship came aboard our motor ship at night. Altogether our crew numbered twenty. Long months of watching had made us acquainted with all moves the guards. We knew when the guard was changed, so we waited until the new guard had had their look around and had gone in to see to their bedding. We knew how the searchlights manoeuvred, but could not rely on immunity from that source. Sometimes they flashed every 15 minutes, sometimes every half-hour, or hour, or even two hours. But we had noticed there seemed to be a path they did not touch That was what we decided to follow.

1 11,l 1 , ° dock we started to heave the cable. The main obstacle was a net across the harbour, and the danger was increased by the fact that the ship had a balanced rudder. The space between the rudder and the bottom of the ship might easily be caught by a wire and then we were finished. We had to take the risk We mu wer ?. luck - V ' Nobody noticed us The ship was put across diagonally and .crossed the net smoothly. \V hen we reached the obstacle we just stopped the engines and slipped over. 1

Itwas a Saturday night when we started, and we saw nothing till after seven o clock on Sunday night. Then a small ship appeared and came closing in on us. We were sure it was a patrol boat, but did not know whether it was British or French We could not take any chances I rang for more speed, the chief engineer pressed the engine as far as it would go, and we saw we had the speed of the patrol boat. She could see it, too, and fired five times at us the nearest shot dropping a cable (about 600 ft) off abreast Then we wirelessed the nearest British station, at Bathurst (in Gambia , asking for protection. Immediately the answer came that our message was being forwarded to the South Atlantic Fleet. Early on Monday a British destroyer arrived and asked us if we came from Dakar We said we had, and they asked" How did you do it?" They asked if we wanted fresh supplies. We said we were all right, so they convoyed us to Freetown (in Sierra and we were free in Freetown.—Auckland Star and N.A N A