AIRMAN’S ORDEAL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25431, 12 January 1944, Page 4

AIRMAN’S ORDEAL

FORCED DOWN ON SEA BATTLE WITH SHARKS (R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service) (Rec. 7 p.m.) NEW GEORGIA, Jan. 7. Thanks to being spotted and reported by two R.N.Z.A.F. Ventura bombers, Lieutenant David A. Scott, a 2J-year-old Indianapolis pilot of the United States forces in the South Pacific, was picked up by an American Catalina flying-boat off the cost of New Ireland on New Year’s Day and is now well on the way to recovery after eight days of exposure on a life-raft, during which time he fought a desperate battle with sharks. Now back with his Hellcat unit, Scott is rapidly regaining the 251 b lost in his grim ordeal. 1 „ , , After downing a Zero over Rabaul during a sweep on Christmas Eve, Scott was attacked by- Japanese fighters and eventually forced to make a landing on the sea. For three days he endeavoured to paddle his liferaft from a coastal area to the open sea, but at night the current swept him back. Reversing his tactics, he then tried to make for the shore, bu tthe strong current again defeated him. On his fourth night at sea a storm providentially swept Scott seawards, and he resolved to sail to Bougainville. Currents and weather conditions were only part of the American’s troubles, for each day just before sundown sharks came swirling to the surface of the sea to prey on smaller fish following the life-raft. At the outset revolver shots were sufficient to drive the sharks away, but on the /seventh night one nosed right up to the airman’s craft. Scott’s revolver failed, and he fought desperately, first with the gun butt and then with his bare fists, as the shark dived and stabbed viciously at the boat. Finally, Scott flung a sea marker into the face of the shark, and it gave up the attack, leaving the raft riddled and sinking. Undaunted, Scott plugged the worst holes and kept the craft afloat by reinflating it at half-hourly intervals. Next day Scott signalled frantically to passing Venturas, which, after they appeared not to have noticed him, eventually turned in his direction, dropped supplies, and circled round his craft for four hours. . During that night a storm blew the raft another 15 miles north, but with the search now localised as the result of R.N.Z.A.F. crews’ observations, Scott was picked up on. New Year’s Day. Apart from scratches and cuts from his struggle with sharks and weakness from his exposure to sea and wind, the American was in remarkably good physical shape.