SEAMAN'S ORDEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24912, 11 May 1942, Page 6

SEAMAN'S ORDEAL

ADRIFT FOR A FORTNIGHT WASHINGTON, (Rec. 10.30 p.m.) May 9. The only survivor of a Panamanian merchantman torpedoed on the Atlantic coast, has just told at Norfolk, Virginia, a horror story of how he drifted a fortnight in a lifeboat with a delirous ship steward: He said the torpedo blew up the entire ship and killed most of the crew in their bunks. "I was swept overboard," he said, "and managed to grip a drifting lifeboat and pulled a steward named Dieltiens aboard, but it was impossible to get near,, the .other 20 members of the crew, who were slowly drowning while the submarine crew stood at attention, not even turning their heads. The following seven days was a torture of hunger and thirst. I caught a tuna fish, which I tore open by hand, but found the raw flesh uneatable. We kept a continuous watch,"living entirely on raw* crabs' and sea lice. Eventually, Dieltiens became delirous and unconscious. An army bomber on the twelfth day spotted us s and dropped chocolate. Later, we were picked up;by a plane. Dieltiens died a few hours before the rescue." .