ATTACK ON CONVOY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 264, 5 October 1940, Page 6

ATTACK ON CONVOY.

TRAVELLER’S EXPERIENCE

VOYAGE FROM ENGLAND.

One of the most trying of the experiences on the voyage from England of Mrs H. N. Palmer, of Blackpoo , who arrived w'ith her two sons in Palmerston North yesterday, was to be in the convoy in which a ship witn refugee children on board was torpedoed. All's Palmer, recounting her experiences to-day,' said the children, on the torpedoed ship were returned safely to a Scottish port and it was learned later that the boat had been towed back. The torpedoed vessel was only 201) yards in front of the boat on which Mrs Palmer was travelling when it was hit. The general impression, she said, was that the attempt had actually been made oil the boat on which she was a passenger, which was bound for New Zealand, so as to' prevent its return with food. She thought that a miraculous escape was experienced.

As soon as the attack was made on the vessel the whole convoy scattered and Airs Palmer’s ship did not meet any of the others in the convoy for the remainder of the voyage. All the passengers on the ship bound for New Zealand, after the other vessel was struck, bad to remain up all night, wearing their life-belts. Airs Palmer said that the spirit they showed was remarkable. There was no trace of fear, even among the children on board, and all accepted the position very cheerfully. She could not speak too highly of the ship’s crew. The members did all in their power to cheer the passengers" in their long waitthey were not allowed to go to their cabins till seven o’clock in the morning.

Airs Palmer arrived on the same ship as the children from Britain whose arrival is reported to-day. Alost of them, she said, had homes to go to among relations and friends. Thenlife on the boat was well-organised, and such persons as a dancing mistress and a drill instructor travelled with the party. The children had given the other passengers a concert on the voyage out, awl considering that they had been training for only two weeks it was remarkably good.' Because of the black-out conditions there were no night entertainments on the ship, added Airs Palmer, Jt was a real pleasure for the passengers when they reached Panama and at last again saw a town brilliantly lit up at night. The period of intensified air raids had not begun when Airs Palmer left England. Some air raids had been experienced, hut not in her district, where dancer signals had boon given at times hut not the actual warning. In fact the locality was regarded as a safetv zone then, and people were going there to escape raids. She believed. however, that raids had occurred there subscouentl v. A raid had. occurred just before her departure from ■the port in Britain, hut she was not in danger from it. Airs Palmer will stay bore with her sons for the duration of the war. She is a sister of Airs B. .T. Jacobs and Airs J. A. Grant, of Palmerston North, and has been away from- New .Zealand for 11 years.