MOVING STORIES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20065, 11 October 1939, Page 10

MOVING STORIES

AGONISING HOURS SINKING OF ATHENIA WORK OF RESCUE FLARES DOTTED THE SEA LONDON, Sept. 13. Rescue work following the sinking of the Athenia 'by a German submarine provides some moving stories. Heavy casualties among the crew made lifeboat steering and navigation difficult. Many lifeboats had only passengers and stewards aboard. One boatload paid tribute to a nameless young nurse who, with three young men, rowed for hour's until she collapsed exhausted. More than one lifeboat was swamped when being lowered into the water, and the sea came in up to the gunwales. The occupants were bailing with their boots and shoes half the night. “Lifeboats and flares dotted the sea. Desperate shouts for help came from all directions,” relates one survivor. “In a heavy swell, under bright moonlight, we saved about 400 people under great difficulties. One lifeboat turned turtle nearing the stern. Our seamen rescued most of the occupants. A man stood on the keel and dragged the drowning people from the water. A young woman pulled from the water sat for a moment quietly in the rescue boat and then, screaming ‘My baby!’ leaped into the sea. “While the boats manoeuvred to come alongside a great school of whales plunged around them.” Boat In Ship’s Propeller Elizabeth Burrows, of Toronto, an 18-year-old girl, who arrived in Glasgow wearing a dinner frock of blue and white striped silk, but no shoes or socks, held a sailor’s greatcoat round her. “I was going in to dinner with my mother and brother,” she said, “ when the whole ship suddenly shook, and there was a deafening explosion. There were screams everywhere. It looked as if there was going to be panic, but after a few minutes everyone became wonderfully calm. "We were told to fall in line for the lifeboats. There were about 12 men, who took turns at rowing. They rowed for about six hours. It was almost completely dark when we came alongside the Norwegian ship. They came close up and threw us a rope. We manoeuvred towards the stern, and suddenly the ship’s propellers 'began to turn. The lifeboat seemed to be sucked into the blades, and great splinters began to tear off. I was sitting behind mother. We were flung into the water. “I saw mother go under.. Then something must have knocked me out. I must have been semi-conscious in the water about six hours. My brother swam up and supported me. I saw he was holding up mother, too. We appeared to be lying across a piece of driftwood. We stayed that way until the ship came up to us again and lowered ropes. Mother was hoisted abroad, then myself, and finally my brother. The Norwegians gave mother artificial respiration for three hours, but they could not revive her.” Mr. Robert Gillan, of Bridgeton (Glasgow) said:"—ln our boat we rowed about for 10£ hours. The boat was half-filled with water and loaded to capacity. Several people in the water could not be taken aboard, tout we managed to hail other boats for them. While we were rowing we saw the submarine about half a mile away, but she made no further attack on us.” Luckiest Woman on Earth.” Mrs. Elizabeth Turner, or Toronto, who was on the upper deck when the torpedo struck, considered that she must be the luckiest woman on earth, as when she recovered from the shock she saw several men lying dead on the deck near her. “The lifeboat into which I was put capsized,” she said, “but was righted again and we managed to get back again. Many people clung to the side of our boat, but it was too full to take them aboard. “It seemed years before help reached us. The lifeboat was then nearly full of water. It was up to my waist when I was taken aboard the ship.” Mr. Harry Lancaster, who was saved with his wife and seven-year-old son, said he had helped two seamen to lift three bodies to the side to clear the companion-way. “When we were picked up by the rescue vessel there was another tragedy. A young woman, having caught a line from the rescue ship, was dragged from the lifeboat into the heavy swell and crushed to death between the two vessels.” Some of the women in the boats during the night burned their skirts as flares.