FOR 50 DAYS

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIII, Issue 3964, 6 March 1944, Page 3

FOR 50 DAYS

WROTE DIARY ON RAF 1 GEORGE MEDAL FOR TWO SAILORS ONE WITH LOCAL RELATIVES (By Stanley Hickes) One of the most remarkable diaries of the sea, printed in pencil on torn, salt-stained pieces of sailcloth, tells the story of the 50-days ordeal o.n a raft of two Merchant Navy men who to-day are awarded the George Medal for “great ; courage and extraordinary fortitude and endurance.” The men are Kenneth Cooke ship’s carpenter, of Turner-avenue Bridlington, who kept the diary and Able-Seaman Colin Herber Armitage, of Melton, North Ferriby East Yorkshire. Additional interest for Cambridgi readers attaches by the fact tha Kenneth Cooke, is a nephew of Mi and Mrs Geo. Senior, of Empin .Street, Cambridge. Mrs Elizabetl Cooke, mother of Kenneth Cooke of St. Margaret’s, 22 Turner Avenue Bridlington, England, is a sister tc Mr Senior. The diary tells how their ship was torpedoed and sunk. Print ?d in capital letters are the names 61 14 men of the ship’s company v/hc died on the! raft as it drifted in the South v> - The rest of the crew, including the captain, perished when the ship was torpedoed. Cooke and Armitage were the onlysurvivor. They' were found delirious and exhausted five days after the last entry in the sailcloth diary. Cooke had swum in a shark-in-fested sea after the ship had gone down, and the U-boat surfaced near him. The German commander stood on the conning-tower and told him: “Your airmen blast our cities Now you will drown.” Then the submarine submerged, and Cooke and his comrades were left to the mercy of the wide seas, 900 miles from land. In Cooke’s home at Bridlington last night I read his sailcloth diary. The writing becomes vague and indistinct as the ordeal of the raft voyage became worse. Here are entries: — 800 Miles Out. March 19: Sunk by U-boat. Ship sank quickly. Not a chance to get one lifeboat away. Many men went down with ship. ; - We have 14 men on two rafts. We are about 800 miles from land, so will, try, to make it. Expect rescue i ships any day now. k One week over and no ship. Men getting down-hearted. Still hoping. ' One more week. Nothing seen. Where is our Navy? I don’t think they are looking for us. Men getting 1 very weak now. We sent SOS out eight hours before we were sunk. Hoping for a ship. April 12: Now 24 days on this raft. Four men passed away. Looking for a ship every minute day and, night by keeping one-hour watches. Two more men looking very ill. May God help us; we need Him now. April 22: Eight more men passed on. Things look bad. Two men, left—myself. K. Cooke, carpenter, and C. Armitage, A.B. Both as well as can be expected. Extra water, food, keeping us going. We think our speed about 20 miles a day'. If we can stick it for about 45 days we should make land. I think we could, with God with us. April 29: No\v 40 days at sea. Not seen a ship. Where’s our Navy patrol? Looking for ship or plane any day' now. We must be near land now. Many birds around. They! passed west. j Brought many sharks. Six to] eight anv time you look. Still two! of us left. We will stick it to the! end. Our course since we w’ere sunk has been from east-north-east to north. So we should make land 0.R.. April 30: :Good news. About 10...0 this morning two aircraft, a few I minutes apart, flew' right head, over \ us aE about 8-10,000 ft. high. We let * oft* twu distress smoke-floats. Very goo«L Bui got, sorry to say, nothings in reply from aircraft. We have one smoke-float left. Hoping aircraft saw us. So our hopes now are very great, thanking “ our good Lord. “Faith in God.” 3 p.m.: :Tw'o aircraft passed over but gave no sign of seeing us. But -we have greater hopes now. If there arc any to-morrow' we shall know' it for the R.A.F. Coast Patrol. Then we can expect to be sighted any day. May 1 (9.30 a.m.): Aircraft passed over us, but could not see us. Expect to be sighted any time now'. We still have good heart and faith in God. • - May 2 (1b.30 a.m.): Aircraft passed right over us again as I write. 'jSt jere comes another. Both Very Let off a flare but no ripply. must be Coast Patrol. We feel verymuch in good spirits, thank God. This is too. Aircrait right over our course. Another plane in five minutes. We are both mad with excitement. We lighted a flare. Plane sighted us. For the next hour wc can’t remember our actions. Plane, U.S. Army, dropped us four \ We could only manage to reach two

containing raft, con, kite, balloons, etc. We were too weak to reach the other two packages. Could not sleep that night for excitement. May Z: Expecting rescue any time to-day. Watching out all day, but nothing seen. Vision Of Home. May 4: Great hopes to-day. Nice weather for plane or ships. 4 p.m.: Nothing to report. Have been expecting to be rescued to-day, but no luck. Not seen a thing so far today, but still a chance and still hoping- Hope it will end soon. Our water is very low, 4oz. a day. The diary ends here with the last letters sprawling across the cloth. Four days later the two men were picked up by a British snip. Th";y had lived on one keg of water and some concentrated food tablets rationed out at 2 6z. of water and two tablets a day, one for breakfast and one for supper. . They obtained barnacles and shellfish bv trailing a rope in the water, caught living fish with a harpoon made out of. iron. strips from the raft. ' . ', Seaman Cooke says he was haunted the whole time by a vision of his mother—who will go with him to receive his medal—pouring water from a pink water jug, as she did when he was a boy.