"Taxi, Please!"

Levin Daily Chronicle, 13 December 1917, Page 3

"Taxi, Please!"

TORPEDO VICTIM'S HUMOUE. One of our British officers, who narrowly escaped drowning when his ship was rcccntly torpedoed in the Mediterranean, wrote thus to a friend at home. "When you really have to fight for it single-handed, one realises what a precious thing life is, and my advice to your boys is to 'learn to swim' when they arc young, and it comes easy to them. I saw many poor fellows drown because they could not swim, and, consequently, lost confidence and hope, which qualities arc, I believe, quite as nccessary as life-belts in a shipwreck. '' There was one man who had sufficient pluck and endurance to turn black tragedy into humour for a brief time. It became d ar k, and nothing appeared to pick us up, and things were looking very desperate, when some one near me began blowing sharp blasts on a whistle in the hope of attracting attention. Immediately from a bobbing head near by came the call 'Taxi!' which was greeted by a ripple of laughter everywhere. I am sure that remark saved lives, and I only hope the author of it was saved too —I am sure he must have been. Although the ship sank within five minutes, and it was really 'every one for himself,' the men behaved splendidly, and there was never anything approaching a panic."