ADRIFT FOR 70 DAYS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20624, 27 November 1941, Page 9

ADRIFT FOR 70 DAYS

TWO BRITISH SEAMEN WATCHED COMRADES DIE LONDON, Nov. 20. One of the most remarkable stories in the annals of the sea was told by Lieutenant - Commander Thomas Woodroffe in a broadcast to-day when he described the ordeal of two young British seamen who were adrift in the Atlantic in an open lifeboat for 70 days after their ship had been sunk by an enemy raider. On August 21, 1940, the British merchant ship Anglo - Saxon was 2,000 miles off the Bahamas when, during ihe first watch, a German raider loomed up out of the darkness and sank the vessel by gunfire. The raider then steamed off. There were seven survivors from the Anglo-Saxon, the chief officer, an engineer, the cook, the wireless operator and the two seamen. These men managed to lower a lifeboat before the ship went to her doom. All the food they had was some biscuits and tinned mutton, and four cans of water. After 15 days the water gave out and 'the wireless operator, who had given his . last rations of water to someone else, died. One morning the chief officer seemed very cheerful. “Who is coming with me?” he said suddenly. The engineer said he would, and together the two men carried out their suicide pact by stepping over the side of the lifeboat. They drifted slowly away. Following the death of the gunner, the cook lost his reason and jumped into the sea. That left only the two young seamen.'' Occasionally there was a shower of rain, but for long periods they were entirely without water. When they could not stand the thirst any longer, they drank the alcohol out of the compass. For food they now lived mainly on seaweed. Twice the.y tried to commit suicide, but the will "to'live was too' strdhg. After 70 days they peached land, Covered with sores and with the bones coming through their skin. They were taken to hospital and recovered. One went back to sea and was lost when his ship, the Siamese Prince, was torpedoed in February of this year.