SEAMEN’S HEROISM

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 July 1943, Page 6

SEAMEN’S HEROISM

GEORGE CROSS FOR YOUTH RUGBY, July 20. The award of the George Cross, posthumously, to an apprentice, Donald Clarke, of the Merchant Navy, for “great heroism and selfless devotion* is announced. When his ship was torpedoed Clarke was badly burnt but the other men in the lifeboat were too badly injured to row so Clarke rowed for two hours without a word of complaint. Not until after the boat was clear of danger was it realised how badly he was injured. His hands had to be cut away from the oar as the burnt flesh had stuck to it. He had been rowing with th,e bones of his hands. Later, in the bottom of the boat, he sang to keep up the spirits of. his shipmates. He died next day. A ship’s carpenter, W. Chapman, who usect nis hands as shark bait when in charge of a boat from a torpedoed ship has received the British Empire Medal. When food was running low he caught a shark four feet six inches long using his hands as bait. He coolly waited for the shark to approach and, catching it by the gills, threw it into the boat and killed it. • The London Gazette announces that the George Medal has been awarded to an apprentice, Colin Fookes, of Eltham, whose ship was set on fire by dive-bombers. Fookes entered the blazing magazine and removed a case of cordite which was smouldering. MR. ATTLEE’S TRIBUTE “RUGBY, July 20. Allies’ losses at sea had notably diminished of late, said Air Attlee, in London, to-day, and there has been an encouraging improvement in ' the shipping situation. The U-boat menace is not yet removed and the/Allies could be certain the enemy was devoting much thought and ingenuity to devising new methods of. attack. Referring to the excellent work of the Merchant Navy, Mr. Attlee said it was significant the awards to British merchant seamen already numbered over 4500. A. high proportion of these had been awarded for courage, tenacity and resource in fighting fires, battling through storms, with battered ships, saving lite and displaying amazing endurance and fortitude, when at the mercy of the waves m open, boats or on rafts. Coastal shipping nad played an important part in the war effort, Mr. Attlee added, by mailing hundreds of thousands of voyages which relieved congestion on the railways, and helped in the rapid distribution of cargoes from ocean-going ships. The Merchant Navy had also done magnificent work in servicing' the Fleet. In spite of the hazards, volunteers for the Merchant Navy came from all directions and all ages, from schoolboys to men of sixty, representing tee British Isles, the colonies, and ail the Dominions; also forty to fifty thousand Allied and neutral seamen. There was c- waitinlist of a ppi entices tlicit could not be absorbed in many months.