TORPEDOED DUTCH SHIP
CREW BRING VESSEL TO PORT WASHINGTON, April 2. The United States Navy has disclosed the story of a Dutch merchantman, torpedoed in the Atlantic, which "herself decided to refute the judgment” of the officials who listed her as lost. A torpedo struck her bow, causing the ship to list sharply. The stern rose high and the propellers thrashed. The order was then given to abandon ship. Only one of four lifeboats remained sufficiently close to discover the next morning that the ship refused to sink. The captain reboarded the vessel, and was surprised to find two officers who had missed the lifeboats. An examination showed that salvage was possible because during the night sufficient sand ballast had poured out to enable the bow to rise slightly. The captain and a skeleton crew of 14 laboriously unloaded a further 150 tons of sand, and partly flooded the stern. Gradually the vessel regained a fairly even keel. Tried at a slow speed, the ship behaved crazily, jumping and twisting. This, curiously, was corrected by increasing to three-quarter speed, when a comparatively steady voyage continued for 700 miles. In five days the ship docked at an Allied Atlantic port.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23914, 5 April 1943, Page 3
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199TORPEDOED DUTCH SHIP Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23914, 5 April 1943, Page 3
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