ORDEAL ON RAFT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 28 October 1941, Page 8

ORDEAL ON RAFT

HARASSED BY SHARKS THREE OUT OF 12 SURVIVE London, Oct. 21. Lieutenant R. E. Cox, of the Indian Army, who is one of only three survivors, tells a remarkable story of maneating sharks that followed 11 other men and himself on a small raft for five and a-half days. Nine of the men became victims of the sharks. They were adrift on the raft, he said, after their ship had been torpedoed 1200 miles from land. The three survivors were rescued by a Spanish ship. Lieutenant Cox was proceeding to India in a merchant ship when the vessel was torpedoed, many of the passengers. including women, being killed. The raider gave the passengers and crew five minutes to take to the boats, most of which, however, had been riddled by shellfire and were useless. ■‘Several of us jumped into the water,” he said. “With 11 others, I then clambered on to a raft. Without food or water, we found the blazing sun intolerable. Sharks followed us. darting at our legs, and we took turns at splashing to frighten them off. The raft overturned on many occasions during the five and a-half days we were adrift but each time we managed to scramble back before the sharks reached us. One man who had been strapped on to the raft in his lifejacket was washed away. Another man who swam after him was killed by a shark. “Only three of us were left when we j .-aw a shin and waved a torch to attract its notice. The ship came alongside, and its officers asked us whether wc were English or German. They lifted us aboard in slings. Even when we were Jilted aboard, sharks made grabs I at us. The ship later picked up a boatload of 4b other survivors, and we were all lnken to Teneriffe."