ONE OF 31 SURVIVES

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24132, 26 November 1941, Page 8

ONE OF 31 SURVIVES

13 DAYS TN LIFEBOAT FINAL STRUGGLE TO BEACH LONDON, Nov. 1!) A story of the terrible suffering of 31 seamen in a lifeboat which was adrift for 13 days was revealed today with the award of the M.B.E. to the sole survivor, R. H. Ayres, second mate of a torpedoed steamer. Ayres was strengthened for the last lap of his terrible struggle through mountainous waves near the Lizard by the shouts of four London children who had been evacuated to Cornwall. "If it had not been for those kids on the cliff I would never have made it," said Ayres later. "Their voices spurred me on, and I struggled on and dropped unconscious on the beach." There were 23 Indians in the lifeboat and eight British sailors. The Indians were allocated the sheltered end of the boat and all the blankets, because they were least able to withstand the cold. Ayres, who was able to handle a sailing-boat, set a course for the east, and fixed the water ration at two dippers a day. After seven days only seven were alive. Land was sighted on the 13th day, but the men were too weak to use the oars, so they shortened sail and ran for the shore. Combers twice overturned the boat, and only three now clung to the keel. One slipped off. and the others were too weak to help him. Avres and a seaman struck out desperately for the shore. The seaman scrambled on to a rock, but before he was rescued he was washed back and disappeared. ADA REEVE SERVING HELPED ANZACS IN 1914-18 LONDON, Nov. 18 The sense of humour of the actress Ada Reeve lightens the tragic, but not unusual story, of how she has been trying to "do her bit,' Tired of knitting comforts at Blackpool, she applied at the Labour Exchange for a war job, which she thought she would get because she had, if not youth, at least enthusiasm and experience. After a number of setbacks in this and other applications, at last, through the Mayor of Blackpool, she was given a job as welfare worker at a munitions works, working from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. lor £2 a week, plus a six shillings bonus, less income tax. When she said this was not enough, the manager suggested that she should change to a happier job. Mr. Hannan Swaffer, the London columnist, comments on the story of this woman, who raised many thousands of pounds for the Anzacs in the last war: "This is only one story of thousands which I could print. Yet the nation still wants men and women."