EPIC OF THE SEA

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22125, 20 November 1941, Page 4

EPIC OF THE SEA

600 Miles In Open Boat Crew Of Torpedoed Ship (P.A.) AUCKLAND, November 19. In thirteen 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 fullyladen 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 sank by the stern so perpendicularly that we could see down the funnel. “Two boats were successfully launched on the lee side, but the two boats launched on the weather side were washed across the after welldeck and were smashed. The air compartments kept them afloat and we were transferred to the other two boats,” said the narrator. “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." He went on to say that 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 40 hours for a Spanish vessel which was believed to have picked up the 5.0.5., the captain set out in his faster and smaller boat, and eventually made Dakar, where he and his crew were interned 11 days later. Morale of Crew “Our boat was manually propelled on the ‘mangle’ system and with sail set headed for the coast which was sighted in nine days,” said the first officer. “I rigged up an awning to protect us from spray by using the boat cover and timber and nails from a condensed milk box. Ten men worked one hour and then had one hour off 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 and a cup of water in the morning and evening for two daily 1 meals, said the speaker. There was a hard biscuit and 21b of com beef divided between the 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. Flying fish were 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.

"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 and the captain and crew, obviously proBritish, 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 the British officer. He then took the 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 Bald Head, Bathurst, and were towed in by the harbourmaster’s lunch. The 71 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.’