RESCUED BY N.Z. HOSPITAL SHIP

Camp News, Volume 3, Issue 135, 14 August 1942, Page 7

RESCUED BY N.Z. HOSPITAL SHIP

Crew Of Torpedoed Vessel . s ’ . ■. A double errand of mercy was performed recently by a New Zealand hospital ship when on a voyage from the Middle East. She was carrying sick and wounded -soldiers on their way home, and encountered, in the Indian. Ocean, two ship’s boats with survivors of an Allied cargo vessel which had ' been torpedoed a few hours before. Survivors stated that the ship had ■ been hit by two torpedoes, but did not . sink immediately, so that they had , been able to save some of their effects. The submarine was never seen. ’ The captain of the vessel, a Dane, ; was!the last to leave the ship, which had taken a heavy list. He walked ’ down the side after passing down his ' personal papers and belongings and ’ then swam to the waiting boats. There were, in all, 39 survivors in T the. two boats, including four woundT ed. Nine nationalities, Allied and I neutral, were represented. The four : wounded were taken aboard the host pital ship in special overside stretchers . after they had received attention in

LtJ-ICI LDVJ Al Ct VI - the boats from one of the ship’s doctors. Five of the crew were missing, some having been killed in the explosions. The captain’s wife, who was one of those saved, had suffered a slight ankle injury in the torpedoing, and was injured elightly again while transferring from the boat to the hospital ship. Some of the other survivors were suffering from shock. The chief engineer of the torpedoed ship had a narrow escape. He was in his cabin at the time, and wa. thrown from his bunk. The floor of the cabin was forced up. and the door jammed. It had to be broken down to get him ' out.