SURVIVOR'S STORY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 80, 11 June 1943, Page 5

SURVIVOR'S STORY

ON BOARD TORPEDOED SHIP

iWHAKATANE BOY'S EXPERIENCE

'ACTION BY JAP. SUIJMAIILNI-:

"I counted myself one of the . lucky ones, for I was only in the water for half an hour before I was picked up. Some of the other chaps were no less than eight hours adrift in their life belts and were pretty well all in when they were finally picked) up.' r In this way A.B. Lance Bennett, elder son of Mr -and Mrs; Les Bennett of Soutar's Avenue, Whakatane, summed up his unique experiences on board • a torpedoed freighter which went down recently off the Australian coast. Lance Bennett who is just 21 years of age is :i Whakatane lad who will be well remembered by many ol' the • younger members of the community. His. story is lull of interest and lively adventure covering some six .hectic hours when he with a group of five remained upon the stricken ship till she linally foundered. Struck at 1 a.m. "The ship which was one of a con- " voy was iifteen miles olf the Queensland coast. There was a choppy sea but otherwise the weather was fair. Our narrator states that the torpedo struck at. 1 a.m., when he Avas asleep the. explosion .sent him rushing on deck with his life jacket. The ship which had been struck almost! fairly amidship was listing .heavily to port. The crew climbed to the higher yide. of the already steeply standing deck and hurried efforts were made to launch a raft. This however proved impracticable. Several of the crew then tlived over board but the majority concentrated on launching the only remaining one of the. ship's boats—the others having been badly smashed by the explosion. Of the original crew of .70 some 30 were already in the water holding on to floating pieces

oi' "wreckage. Main Boat Launched The i)oat was "munched and into it scrambled 116 others leaving the captain, the second mate, the cr*. gineer and the- Whakatane boy who naively remarked that lie elected to remain and help the 'old man.' Meanwhile the 'convoy acting upon standing navy orders had passed on, not running the risk ol' further losses by remaining in the vicinity. However a corvette 1 remained in touch, heaving-to some three .miles distant and standing by till grey dawn. Fire Outbreak Checked The first job of the marooned group was to suppress a lire, which broke out in No. 4 hold, the cause of which was the broken insulation of the freezing chamber setting lire to some oil tanks. The ship by this time was rising by the bow and at any time it appeared she might slip away. With the engineer, Lance Bennett then went below and closed some of .the bulkhead doors in an effort to keep the wreck ailoat a little longer. The long dreary watch then convtinued, the eyes of the lour men being fixed steadily on the outline of the corvette in the distance. Ship Turns Turtle Iln the grey dawn the corvette drew cautiously nearer, standing by some little distance oil'. The crippled ship had by now shot her bows almost perpendicularly into the. air. An attempt was. madh to rocket a line across from the warship but without success the lines going wide ;and missing the mark owing to the sea which was running. Promptly at (>..") I a.m. the vessel ■suddenly settled by the stern and slid over. "Our narrator described how lie beat it to the bows slid, down a rope and momentarily sat on the bilge keel. He had a vision of the hows reared some 70 or 80, feet-in ■ the air before they slipped under the surface. Depth Charges The four remained together in the water and were soon picked, up by t.hc corvette but not before some, further startling experiences. The warship detectors suddenly indicated subterranean noises not unlike those of a submarines motors. Down went the depth charges (Continued in next column)

without a moment's delay, and for those men in the water anywhere near the explosions the experience was somewhat terrifying—indeed one man almost rose with one. of the water columns from the discharge suffered from hurst. • eardrums. The jack tars made a special fuss of the rescued men when finally drawn aboard the friendly little naval vessel. They were regaled with ships cocoa, put in hot blankets und given warm clothes. Life Saving Whistles The long job of picking up survivors them commenced and the drift of the ship had to be followed for many miles. Life jackets carry in their equipment particularly shrill sounding whistles and it was to these that many of the rescued «ien owed their lives.

Owing to the swell they could not be seen, but always above the noise of the sea could be. heard the whistles of the men in distress. In all (j8 men were saved out of the full crew of seventy, another tribute to the' efficiency and thoroughness of the navy. Lancc, (Bennett has received u bounty of £27 from the New Zealand Government to cover the complete loss of all his effects. He returned from Sydney recently and has now been posted to the coastal trade. While in Sydney on his leave prior to sad ing with I lie convoy which was attacked he. was married, the bride being a young English girl now resident in Australia. We have every hope that Whakatane may yet have the pleasure of welcoming her here as a permanent resident.