RESCUED FROM SEA

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 265, 7 October 1940, Page 7

RESCUED FROM SEA

VICTIMS OF DISASTERS.

NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS

(United Press Association—Copyright.)

(British Official Wireless.) (Rec; 12 noon) RUGBY, Oct. 6. Nearly 500 survivors of ships lost in the Atlantic have been saved during the last few months through the good work of Coastal Command aircraft, states an Air Ministry bulletin.

Sunderland flying-boats both of the R.A.F. and Royal Australian Air Force, and other aircraft, patrol far out into the Atlantic every day, escorting convoys and searching for many miles round convoys. They sometimes find lifeboats and rafts drifting helplessly out of sight of passing ships. The most famous of riiese rescues was - that of September 25, when 46 survivors of the City of Benares were picked up after she had been torpedoed 600 miles from land. There have been similar cases. One Sunderland found two boatloads of people .who were suffering severely from thirst. They signalled that they had food but no water, and the ilyingboat dropped its own fresh water supply, also cigarettes in a carefully-sealed package kept afloat by a lifejacket. Then it brought up a rescue ship. There were two persons on a raft sighted a few days later. They, too, were rescued. Boats are mere dots on the grey water when first seen from aircraft. Binoculars ' come into play, .and the pilot goes down to 20ft. or 30ft to investigate. The dot is a lifeboat or a raft. Then a package of supplies plumps into the sea nearby and the aircraft flashes the cheerful message that help is coming. A smoke float is dropped to mark the position, then the aircraft goes off to search for a ship to be guided to the spot.

LINER TORPEDOED.

FEW CASUALTIES SUFFERED

LONDON, Oct. 5,

A British warship has picked up and landed at a northern British port survivors from the liner Highland Patriot (14,172 tons), which was torpedoed in the Atlantic while on a voyage from South America. Twenty-seven officers, 109 members of the crew and 33 passengers were rescued. It is reported that three men were killed in the engine-room and four other persons were hurt and have been taken to hospital. The passengers included a number of British citizens who were to join the forces in England and also two stewardesses and two women passengers. A U-boat fired two torpedoes; the first set fire to the ship, which blazed for several hours before sinking. The Highland Patriot m January had a two hours’ fight with a U-boat, which fired five torpedoes before being driven off by the skip’s guns. The British merchantman Corrientes (6863 tons) was sunk by enemy action last week. The crew are sale and are expected to land at an Amciican port. _ ' A New York message states that the captured German freighter Weser has arrived at Esquimalt (British Columbia) with a prise crew ( and under naval escort.