SHIPWRECKED SWEDES

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 22, 26 January 1940, Page 8

SHIPWRECKED SWEDES

RESCUED BY YOUTHS

GIVEN FOOD INTENDED FOR

WEDDING BREAKFAST

(Received January 26. 2.10 p.m.)

LONDON. January 25.'

! Food prepared for a wedding party among a tiny crofter community fed shipwrecked Swedish seamen from the sunken steamer Gothia who had existed on biscuits, corned beef, and water after the torpedoing of • their

vessel

Eleven of the survivors reached an uninhabited islet on the west coast of Scotland after spending several days in an open boat. Three of them were seriously injured, one having a broken leg and another a fractured spine. All were utterly exhausted.- Four youths from a village miles .away saw tlsjir light, and launched a boat. They found some of the Swedes in a hut, the others being too wearied out to leave the boat. The rescuers put them all into the boat and towed it to the village, where, despite the early hour, the crofters in the hamlet of eight families welcomed the survivors and gave them food which was intended for a local wedding breakfast. A search is proceeding for the Gothia's lifeboat, containing ten men.