ADRIFT FOR 49 DAYS
CREW OF TORPEDOED SHIP LONDON, July 7. Stories of two torpedoed Allied ships were released in London to-day. One ship went down five minutes after a torpedo hit her and for the next 49 days 22 men fought for life in (heir open boats. Food gave out after 34 days and for the last 15 days they had nothing but a meagre ration of water.
During these 15 days two officers in charge refused to let hope die and did everything in their power to get the men through their ordeal. Rescue came on the forty-ninth day. The two officers have just been decorated. Another ship, when hit by a torpedo, increased her speed and got away. After a struggle she made port, but the next day went on to another port seeking repairs. Materials and labour were scarce so the whole crew went to work to repair the huge hole in the ship’s side. These temporary repairs enabled the ship, to return to Britain and bring her valuable cargo with her.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19430717.2.62
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21149, 17 July 1943, Page 4
Word Count
176ADRIFT FOR 49 DAYS Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21149, 17 July 1943, Page 4
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Gisborne Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.