VIVID ACCOUNTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20076, 24 October 1939, Page 2

VIVID ACCOUNTS

SURVIVORS’ STORIES

LOSS OF COURAGEOUS RESCUE OF CREW SONGS ON FLOATS Vivid accounts of the torpedoing and sinking of the aircraft-carrier, H.M.S. Courageous, are given by survivors and eye-witnesses, reports a London message published in the Sydney Morning Herald. One of the survivors, William Britton, aged 45 years, of Glasgow, a stoker and pensioner, .showed a watch with the hands rusted by immersion in the sea. It had stopped at 8.6 p.m. He plunged into the sea at 8 p.m. “I saw,” he said, “a young able seaman go overboard twice to save shipmates. Officers in boats carried on after the Courageous sank and gave orders. There was no panic.

“An engineer-officer, when the lower decks were awash, dashed down the hatchway in the hope of trimming the vessel, which was listing dangerously.” “Up For Two”—-And Then , . .

ißritton added, “About 7.50 p.m. I was playing ‘Rummy’ on the mess deck. Others were yarning and writing letters. Somebody had just said, ‘Up for two,’ when there was an explosion, and I was shoulder-deep in water, and in complete darkness. I groped my way to the top deck, but only 12 of 50 on the mess deck thus escaped. “On the deck I heard the commander say ‘Cut all floats adrift.’ We then realised that the ship was done for. I partly stripped and slipped into the water with my boots unlaced. “I was struggling to get the last one off when a destroyer picked me up among 380 others. They gave us rum, blankets and clothes, and did everything for us. I have been tasting oil fuel ever since. “One stoker was. badly burned, but he simply asked, ‘What about the other lads below?’ The leading stoker had warned us about dirty hammocks. I met him afterward on the destroyer and asked him, ‘What about the dirty hammocks now, chief?’ ” Another survivor said that orders to abandon ship came after five minutes, and the Courageous foundered after 30 minutes. Sonje of the boats could not be used, because the vessel was heeling too quickly. There were two distinct explosions at an interval of about a second, as well as a few minor explosions. Most of the crew jumped into the water.

An eye-witness, in a radio message to the United Press of America from the American freighter Collingsworth, which rescued 53 survivors, including, five injured . men, and transferred them to a destroyer, said:

“The Courageous sank stern first within 20 minutes. “The Collingsworth and a HollandAmerica liner were within seven miles. They raced to the scene, dropped lifeboats and rescued men clinging to debris. Many had been trapped below decks.

Still Moving While Sinking

“The survivors said that the ship was travelling at 15 knots when struck, and was still under way while sinking. She had been submarinehunting and had had several successes in the last few days. She carried 24 aeroplanes, the last of which had returned a few minutes before the torpedoing. It is believed that the first torpedo struck the ship aft the engine-room and- the second near the boilers or magazine. Two major explosions buckled the flight deck. The crew was able to launch only two lifeboats on the port side, one of which was crushed.

Seaman Andrew Logue, of Dumbarton, said that he and others stripped. They discarded their heavy bronze money and tucked their silver and notes into body belts. He felt the suction of the Courageous as she went down. While he was swimming a whaler took him to a destroyer. He passed a float, on which all the men were singing.

Another lad of 17 described how a boatfull of 30 men sank, forcing the occupants to swim as the stern of the Courageous went aloft and she plunged to the bottom. “I swam like blazes,” he said. “Johnny Weismuller couldn't have caught me. I was helped aboard a float, where we sang ‘Rolling Home’ and ‘Show Me the Way to Go Home.’ The destroyer came abeam so beautifully she hardly disturbed the float, and rescued us. What I thought of most when I left the Courageous was two ‘bob’ in a discarded trou'sers pocket.”

In Ilis “Birthday Suit” A gunnery officer declared that weather conditions and everything else favoured the submarine. “I jumped into the sea,” he said, “in my ‘birthday suit.’ Many on the Courageous, owing to the vessel listing, failed to jump clear of the side, and a number were killed. All sorts of floating stuff was overboard." Tom Hughes said that the water was so thick with oil, the men might have been swimming in treacle. Naval-Air-man Derek Fuller said that among the songs he heard before the rescue boats arrived were “Beer Barrel Polka” and “Boomps-a-Daisy.” Others' told similar stories, which varied in individual particulars, but were alike in establishing the absence of panic. A typical sentence was,

“After the explosion everybody quickly calmed down and obeyed the orders of the captain, who remained perfectly cool. There were a number of men aboard as the ship went down. It was amazing how composed they were.”

Brave Young Bugler

Dick Emerson, bugler in the Royal Marines, sft. tali, went with hundreds of others to the flight deck and tied his bugle to the rail, so'that it would go down with the ship. He stripped, clambered clown the starboard side, and struggled to a float, on which were 50 survivors. He said: “We paddled away from the ship, singing ‘Hi, Ho,’ till a destroyer saved us.

“There is no doubt that the submarine was blown up. The conning tower went one way, the stern another, and oil shot up from the water after the destroyer dropped five depth charges. We cheered like mad. The German commander made a perfect shot, but knew that it was his death warrant, f would not mind joining another ship, but it must be something different from an aircraft-carrier —it’s too far to jump.” Among the survivors is Commander E. M. C. Abel-Smith, formerly the King’s equerry, who called at Buckingham Palace when the naval reserve was called up. One of his first duties on board was to receive the King when he visited the Courageous during his recent inspection of the Reserve Flee; at Weymouth. He also accompanied the King and Queen on their Canadian tour.