Wisecracks as Ship Sinks

Camp News (Northern Command), Volume 1, Issue 28, 8 November 1940, Page 2

Wisecracks as Ship Sinks

" ’ One of about thirty officers and men aboard the torpedoed troopship Mahomed Ali El-Kebir, after all the'boats and rafts had got away, a young- petty officer dived into the sea shouting: “Come on mates. There’ll always be an Englandlet’s swim to it.” • J r ' They did not have to swim far before British warships picked them up. << , This was revealed in London recently. The torpedoeing was announced on a Sunday night, when it was stated that 740 of the 860 men on board had been landed. 7 When the ship was hit all the soldiers on board, steady as though they were on the parade ground, calmly awaited the order to take to the boats. It was dark when the Mahomed Ali El-Kebir, of 7,527 tons, was torpedoed, and many of the. men were just turning in for the night. . Like Peace Drill. In a few minutes all the troops had fallen in under their officers on the canting deck of the sinking ship, awaiting the order to take to the boats. The orders came to detachment after detachment and they manned the boats as if they were carrying out a peace-time drill. Naval ratings on board, “wise-cracking” as they worked, aided the crew of the ship in manning the boat falls and acting as boat-keepers as the boats were lowered. Their training and experience were invaluable, for, a heavy swell made the lowering of the boats and their handling difficult and dangerous. As it was, one boat capsized. They also launched the life-saving rafts. x - Ship’s officers have stated that the loss of life would certainly have been much higher had .it not been for the naval ratings. . . , . • The last boat was floated off the deck of the sinking ship, leaving the thirty officers and men whose boats had been wrecked by the explosion of the torpedo.