SURVIVED TORPEDO

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20837, 16 July 1942, Page 5

SURVIVED TORPEDO

US. MERCHANTMEN U-BOAT OUTWITTED (3 p.m.) WASHINGTON, July 14. The Navy Department announced that a medjum-sized United States merchant ship was torpedoed in the Carribean several weeks ago but did not sink. The ship later reached a United States port. There were no casualties. Members of the crew said that a U-boat was out-smarted by the merchant skipper, who shifted ballast to the port side, pouring oil on the fires to improvise a smoke-screen, and zigzagged and dodged through reefs, and then limped safely to port although there was a hole in the side large enough to drive a tank through. A New Orleans message reports Rear-Admiral Kauffman, commander of the Gulf Sea frontier, as saying that submarine attacks in the Gulf area were diminishing, and “we are endeavouring to use every ship we can lay our hands on. We will not allow convoys to be ordered for all Gulf shipping. This is a debatable question, convoys versus patrols, depending on such factors as the speed of ships and the'length of time for which escort shiDS are tied up.”