LOCATED BY N.Z. PILOT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 296, 16 December 1942, Page 5

LOCATED BY N.Z. PILOT

survivorToFfreighter (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Recd. 7 p.m.) London. Dec. 14. Flight-Lieut. Stanley George Baggott, D.F.C., of Christchurch, captain- ■ ed a Sunderland flying-boat which located a lifeboat carrying 25 people. They were among 73 survivors of a torpedoed freighter who spent live aays in lifeboats 500 miles from the coast of Ireland. The Sunderland located the lifeboat at dusk, just berore giving up the search. It flow down to 50 feet and dropped a bag of food, including grapefruit. The people stood up and cheered. The Sunderland radioed the position to a destroyer, and then began the wearisome job of circling the lifeboat, lest it drifted from the given position. Some hours later the destroyer arrived, which was fortunate, as the Sunderland’s crew were beginning to wonder whether they would have enough petrol to reach their base. As Flight-Lieut. Baggott turned the giant aircraft’s nose for home, his Canadian operator received the following message from the destroyer’s captain: “Lifeboat alongside me now; thank you—well done.” Flight-Lieut. Eaggott is attached to a Canadian squadron. Every lifeboat from the freighter was located by Coastal Command aircraft.