DINGHY NAVIGATOR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 67, 20 March 1942, Page 6

DINGHY NAVIGATOR

a, “ d n AIRMAN’S FEAT IN CHANNEL e, i. a London, March 16. q ’ 't’he navigating feat of the commander of a fighter squadron in crossp ing the English Channel in a rubber dinghy was revealed when a destroyer picked him up 15 miles from the tip o. Portland Bill. □ ’ Squadron Leader J. Carver crashed j’ on the evening of March 12 after a ■J fight with a Junkers 88, which anr other pilot later destroyed. Be started to paddle his dinghy to Engl, nd, and 1 ’ drifted for many miles up ana down ’ the Channel at each successive tide, ? ’ but steadily neared the coast. By r e laborious toil he had managed to cover a distance equivalent to over 40 ,’ miles in a straight line when the destroyer found him at 3 a.m. on Y March 16, alternately blowing a r whistle and singing. He good-hum-1 ’ ouredly resented being picked up, / saying that he would have reached ’ Portland Bill by daylight. The navi- , gating officer of the destroyer worked ’ out that he was correct.