600 MILES IN OPEN BOAT

Southland Times, Issue 24597, 20 November 1941, Page 6

600 MILES IN OPEN BOAT

TORPEDOED BRITISH PARTY

SINKING OF FULLY-LADEN STEAMER

(P.A.) AUCKLAND, November 19. In 13 days in an open boat 44 men from a torpedoed British ship sailed 600 miles down the Atlantic coast of Africa to Bathurst with the loss of only one man. Their fully-laden 10,000-ton steamer was sunk by a U-boat about 400 miles north-west of Dakar on March 11, but under the guidance of an ingenious Tynemouth first officer and with the assistance of a pro-British captain of a Vichy steamer, they reached safety. Renewing his acquaintance with the Rev. H. K. Vickery, chaplain of the Flying Angel Mission to Seamen at Auckland, the first officer who made the epic voyage to save his men from death or internment, and who is now in command of his own ship, told his story from the log. He had not met Mr Vickery since the days when he served as a junior apprentice under sail, but remembered him well.

“We were on our way home via the Cape of Good Hope from Port Pirie, Western Australia, with a heavy bulk cargo, mostly zinc concentrates,” said the stocky, energetic mariner. “We had left Freetown, Sierra Leone, and were abreast of Cape Blanco when we were struck deep by a torpedo. That was at 2.15 p.m., and by 2.30 p.m. there was no sign of our ship, which had sunk by the stern so perpendicularly that we could see down the funnel.

TWO BOATS SMASHED

“Two boats were successfully launched on the lee side, but two boats launched on the weather side were washed across the after well-deck and were smashed. The air compartments kept them afloat and we were transferred to the other two boats. Three Chinese and a European were trapped in the forecastle. The submarine, a new type with a chariot-shaped conning tower, came to the surface and the commander, in fluent English, pointed out the two Chinese in the water.

“The captain had 22 men in a small boat and the first officer in a larger boat had 44 men, who included 13 Chinese. Provisions from the smashed boats were transferred and after waiting together for 49 hours for a Spanish vessel which was believed to have picked up the S O S, the captain set out in his faster and smaller boat and eventually made Dakar, where he and his crew were interned 11 days later. Our boat was manually propelled on the ‘ tangle’ system and with the sail set for the north-east trade wind we headed for the coast, which was sighted in nine days,” said the first officer.

EUROPEAN DIES “I rigged up an awning to protect us from the spray by using a boat cover and timber and nails from a condensed milk box. Then men worked one hour and then had one hour off, 10 men at a time. I navigated with Norrie s logarithm tables, a meteorological chart, a manicure file and a stub of pencil. One European died of exhaustion on the ninth day.” Each man had an egg cup of water in the morning and evening. For two daily meals there was a hard biscuit, 21b of corn beef divided daily between 44 men and a tin of milk for every seven men. After seven days the men had insufficient saliva to want to eat and they sucked the buttons on their shirts to moisten their mouths. It was then that the iron rations were doubled to bolster the weakening morale of the men. It was hot during the day and cold and damp at night. A flying fish was eaten raw. Senegalese met them in a canoe on March 21 and offered to pilot them into St. Louis, but the bar was too rough. On March 22 there was one beaker of water left.

FRIENDLY FRENCH “I wanted to go on to Bathurst and miss Dakar, but with the low water supply and two sick men, the crew wanted to go into Dakar,” said the officer. “We sighted Dakar’s lights at dusk on March 23 and were two miles off when a Vichy ship came alongside. I tottered aboard. The captain and crew, obviously pro-British, gave us water, wine, food, cigarettes, beef, pineapples and a chart to get to Bathurst. ‘There are no Germans and no Italians in Dakar, but what hope have you of getting out again?’ The French captain asked. He then took two sick men aboard and took them into Dakar. “We cheered and shouted ‘Vive la France!’ ” continued the officer. “At daylight on March 24 we sighted Bathurst and were towed in by the harbourmaster’s launch. Seventy-one Europeans there gave us a great welcome. The following day Lady Southern, wife of Sir Thomas Southern, Governor of Gambia, gave us a garden party and bought the Chinese red singlets, which they consider lucky.”