Heroic Ship’s Doctor

Northern Advocate, 15 August 1942, Page 4

Heroic Ship’s Doctor

(Received 3 p.m.) (BtC.W.) RUGBY, August 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 tilting 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, passed a bow-line 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 sank, and swam with a box of morphia tablets to and from the rafts and floats crowded with oil-smothered victims administering morphia where 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.

“On the voyage to New Zealand.” writes Harold Reeve in “Jottings,” a London weekly, “when - a fellow-pas-senger iold me the New Zealand / tobacco was toasted, I thought he was pulling my leg. But he was right. The N.Z. tobacco IS toasted—and a wonderful difference it makes! This same tobacco is the finest I ever smoked. Its sweet and mellow, with a delicious flavour and it smells as good as it tastes. Toasting does that ay! and more, because it extracts the nicotine from the leaf, so that you can smoke any amount of it without fear of consequences. There are no consequences! I don’t know any other tobacco of which that can be said. Most of the American brands are rather rank with nicotine, and quite unsafe to smoke constantly. As long as I lived in New Zealand I smoked toasted tobacco. It is unique.” There are five brands of this tobacco: Desert Gold. Riverhead Gold, Navy Cut No. 3, Pocket Edition, and Cut Plug No. 10, these are the only toasted tobaccos. Of course there are imitations! R.PJI9