HEROISM AT SEA
GEORGE CROSS AWARD APPRENTICE'S FORTITUDE SHARK CAUGHT BY HAND (Britiah Official Wireless.) RUGBY. July 20. The posthumous award of the George Cross to Apprentice Donald Clarke, of the Merchant Navy, for “great heroism and selfless devotion.” has been announced.
When his ship was torpedoed, he was badly burned and the other men in the lifeboat were too badly injured to row so Apprentice Clarke rowed for two hours without a word of complaint. Not until after the boat was clear of danger was it realised how badly he was injured. His hands had to be cut away from the oar as the burnt flesh had stuck to it. He had been rowing with the bones of his hands. Later, lying in the bottom of the boat, he sang to keep up the spirits of his shipmates. - He died next day. " The ship’s carpenter, W. Chapman, who used his hands as shark bait when in. charge of a boat from a torpedoed ship, received the British Empire Medal. When food was running low he caught a shark 4ft. Gin long. Using his hand as bait, he coolly waited for the shark to approach and, catching it by the gills, threw it into the boat and killed it.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21153, 22 July 1943, Page 3
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209HEROISM AT SEA Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21153, 22 July 1943, Page 3
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