POVERTY CHOSEN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22711, 25 October 1935, Page 13

POVERTY CHOSEN

The British battleship Bulwark blew up at Sheerness in 1914. The death roll was 741. One of the 12 survivors wa« Leading Seaman Charles Fitter. Recently Fitter, who is on the retired list, accepted work as night watchman aboard the Humber, the floating crans which has begun salvage work on the sunken Bulwark. He signed his papers t but when the boat sailed for Sheerness from Dover he did not appear. He said to a Sunday Express representative:— “ I simply could not face it. Ever since I agreed to take on the work I have lived over that dreadful scene again and again. It is more than I could bear to spend those night watches there. My doctor has advised me not to go. I could do with the money, but poverty i( better than that. It has brought back all the memories I have been striving to forget.”