ATHENIA ORDEAL

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 254, 27 October 1939, Page 10

ATHENIA ORDEAL

■ WOMAN or SEVENTY-TWO i | TOOK A HAND AT AN OAR i Wiry despite her 72 years. Mrs. A. , Oliphant, a Dunedin survivor of the ’ Athenia. has returned to New Zealand | after an experience which she says she l is anxious to forget. She was in an i open boat crowded with women and ! children, many of whom were sea-sick, land spent twelve hours before being I rescued. Al one stage, in the effort J to keep the boat head on to the sea, she look an oar and earned the admiration of those less able to help. “I was not able to pull very hard," she admitted, ‘but. I was anxious to do something. The boat. rudderless, tossed jn the trough of the sea.” j When the Athenia was struck Mrs. ; Oliphant was in the library reading [after dinner. Some of the passengers were still in the dining-room, but a j considerable number had gone to bed. I "Like others. I escaped with what I I was wearing,” she said. ; While she did not see the submarine I many other passengers did, and it was |an ordeal throughout the night knowI ing that, an enemy craft was in the j vicinity. She praised the people who I provided comforts and clothing for the survivors who landed in Scotland.