GALLANT LEADER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 42, 18 August 1941, Page 6

GALLANT LEADER

ORDEAL IN LIFEBOAT

A FORMER YACHTSMAN

KING CONFERS M.B.E.

(0.C.)

LONDON, July 23

Still suffering from the effects of frost bite and exposure, contracted when he spent 13£ days in a water-logged lifeboat in the Atlantic last October, Chief Officer H. McG. Post (Wellington), received the M.B.E. from the King at a Buckingham Palace investiture last week. The award was made for "skill, courage, seamanship, and cheerfulness."

Chief Officer Post was torpedoed last autumn 400 miles off the Scottish coast in bad weather. For nearly a fortnight 27 men, of whom the New Zealander was one, kept alive in a wilderness of wind-whipped waves while sleet, snow, rain, and flying spray made them wet and miserable. Fortunately for Mr. Post he had a New Zealand-made oilskin. "It saved my life," he said. Mr. Post is the son of Captain C.F. Post, who commanded the Government steamer "Tutanekai," and for many years was president of the Port Nicholson Yachting Club. He attended the ißoseneath and Terrace schools and also [studied at Wellington College.

"I was on the bridge when we were hit," said Mr. Post. "It was a dirty night, the weather was bad, and the sea was high. Suddenly there was a red-blue flash reaching to the top of the mastheads. The entire ship was covered with a swamp of water as if a cloud had burst over it. The decks gushed with water four to six inches deep.

ABANDONMENT ORDERED. "The ship .immediately started to sink by the head. It was soon obvious that she was going, and the captain gave orders to abandon ship. There was a heavy sea running, one of the lifeboats capsized as they were swung out. I was in charge of one, and the captain joined as. There were 27 men in it, and the waves were so high that she turned over.

"We managed to get her right again, but from then on until we were picked up a fortnight later we had to bailall the time, and we were never dry. I was the only New Zealander,in the boat. Chief Engineer C. Hamerton, who also came from Wellington, was in another boat which capsized. He tried to swim over to us, but was drowned.

"When our boat capsized we lost most of the oars, and the mast was washed away. Fortunately/ I had been used to sailing yachts in the harbour at Wellington, and that knowledge came in pretty useful. We rigged up a leg of mutton sail out of part of a canvas boat cover, and that helped us a bit.

"We were not badly off for food, as we had plenty of biscuits and tins of boiled mutton. Ironically, we had little water, and we got so thirsty that we had little appetite, for the biscuits. Sometimes we tried smashing them up with an axe to make a paste, but that was not very satisfactory.

"For that fortnight we just had. to sit in the 'boat, taking our turn at bailing and keeping her head on to the wind. Sometimes- we saw other lifeboats, but not for long. Once a great four-engined Focke-Wulf flew 1500 feet above us. At first we thought it was an English plane, and it raised our hopes tremendously. We were terribly disappointed when it turned out to be a German. We machine-gunned, probably because the Nazis thought we were so far from land that we were as good as done for. ' i SUBMARINE ALSO SEEN. "On another day a German sumarine surfaced about three miles from us, but it also disappeared again without worrying us. Then on the thirteenth day we were picked up by a 900^ton Scottish trawler. It had a crew of 25 and we were 27, but they did. everything they possibly could for us and very soon we were taken ashore to a port on1 the west coast of Scotland. "We all went to hospital. 1 was^ there for only a fortnight, one of the lucky one. Others were there for weeks and months having amputations. If it hadn't been for my oilskin coat I might have fared worse myself."

Mr. Post was accompanied to Buckingham Palace- by his wife, whose brother is Captain S. E. .A. Gregory, marine superintendent of the Port Line in Wellington, and Mrs. A. R. Martin, whose husband is assistant marine superintendent for the Port Line in London.

The King congratulated Mr. Post on his escape and on his fine leadership in the lifeboat.