HEROIC DOCTOR

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20864, 17 August 1942, Page 5

HEROIC DOCTOR

SINKING OF EAGLE CARED FOR INJURED OUTSTANDING INCIDENT (By Telegraph—Press Alien. —Copyright.) (British Official Wireless.) (2.30 p.m.) RUGBY, Aug. 14. The heroism of one of the ship’s doctors is an outstanding incident in the sinking of the aircraft carrier Eagle. , \ With the flight deck lilting at a crazy angle, the doctor found a rating with both legs broken.' The ship was likely to sink at any moment, but the doctor administered morphia and passed a bowline around the man’s shoulders and lowered him down the steeply sloping iron deck to the port side. “Cheerio, you’ll have to go under your own steam now,” called the doctor. The sailor was picked up by a destroyer. The doctor jumped into the sea just before the carrier s.ank and swam with a box of morphia tablets to and from rafts and floats which were crowded with oil-smothered victims, administering morphia where it was needed. Later he swam to a destroyer and was hauled aboard. Before he changed his wet clothing another ship packed with survivors drew alongside. The doctor clambered over the rails and administered morphia to a man whose upper arm was smashed, and set the limb. The Polish destroyer Kujawiak, which has had a proud career, including the sinking of two enemy ships, has been sunk while on convoy work in the Mediterranean.