SOMMER'S MANY PERILS

Greymouth Evening Star, 14 May 1942, Page 2

SOMMER'S MANY PERILS

RESCUED WITH CASTAWAYS

PERTH, April 8. Perils have been packed thickly in the path of Captain Edward P. Rowe, A.1.F., of Victoria, who, with a party of rescued castaways, has at last reached an Australian port from Malaya. He was in hospital in Singapore when it was announced that in half an hour he, like others, would be a prisoner of war in the hands of the oncoming Japanese. He hobbled out to make a bid for liberty, got away to Sumatra and on to Java, was blown overboard by shellfire on a sinking Norwegian ship, and, after 13 hours in the water, was saved. In Java, he was transferred to a Russian-owned yacht which had also made a dash from Singapore. On board were the owner, Mr. Gene Roubin, aged 27, a diver and salvage expert with interests in Malaya, his mother, Mrs. Tarsa Roubin, aged 46, Andrei Merzlitsky, a Russian diver, and other civilians and men of the Services.

The yacht got away from the Indies war area, only to be wrecked on an island oft the north-west coast of Australia. The party scrambled ashore and spent two weeks of privation awaiting rescue.

Mrs. Roubin was one of the few to avoid the sickness which prevailed because of lack of fresh food. Living in tents on the treeless island, the castaways conserved rain water, shot wallabies, and grew long beards. Becoming more resourceful as the days passed, they started to make a wireless transmitting set, and fitted out a dinghy. Then, when a passing vessel was sighted, they poured oil on fires to make a pall of smoke rise over the island. The signal was answered and the castaways were saved.