STRANGE ESCAPADE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20619, 21 November 1941, Page 6

STRANGE ESCAPADE

ASTRIDE A SHIP’S STEM TANKER THAT DIED HARD LONDON. Nov. 1G For 15 hqurs an officer and an able seaman clung perched astride the stem-piece of a tanker which had been blown in two and was reeling and swaying 100 ft above the sea. The tanker had died hard. Hour after hour her gun crews fought back at the attacking submarine. Three torpedoes had sadly battered her until she doubled up, but still she held together. It was the third torpedo which broke her in two. When this happened only two men were on the forepart —the third officer, Mr. G. Todd, of Edinburgh, and Abie Seaman T. Clayton. Mr. Todd actually had the teakwood rail shattered under his hands when, the torpedo struck. As the forepart rose slowly into the air, the two men climbed further and further toward her bows. In the end this part of the vessel .floated vertically and the third officer and the seaman climbed over the rail and sai astride the stem 1001't above the sea.

The two men clung on their dizzy perch until sighted by. an escort vessel which had picked up the other survivors. A volunteer crew rowed over and took a loose turn, round the head of the forestay. The foremast by this time lay dipping in the water, Then Mr. Todd and Able Seaman Clayton swung hand over hand down the forestay and dropped safely into the boat. They had survived, one. of the strangest escapades in the history of the sea.