SEA RESCUE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 December 1939, Page 5

SEA RESCUE

SURVIVORS FROM SWEDISH STEAMER ESSENTIAL AID GIVEN BY BRITISH PLANES. DESTROYER GUIDED TO SPOT. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) RUGBY. December 21. Six survivors of the Swedish steamer Listor were rescued yesterday by the co-operation of a British aircraft and destroyer. A Royal Air Force coastal command machine, on its way' to deal with an urgent military objective many miles away, sighted what appeared to be wooden planks scattered from a ship’s cargo. Closer investigation showed a rough raft, on which six men stood waving their hands. Unable to divert from its objective, the aircraft sent a reassuring lamp signal to the men on the raft and by radio sent a code signal to its base giving the position of the find. At once action was taken. Another aircraft was sent to the position to keep watch and a destroyer was ordered out to pick up the men. A fierce gale had arisen meanwhile, which drove the raft far from the position given by the first aircraft. The second machine, not finding the raft near the indicated position, carried out a close search, taking the reported position as a centre and sweeping, the sea for a hundred miles around. Eventually the raft was sighted, with the six men still on it. The destroyer was still many miles away, however, and was steaming towards the first reported position. The aircraft set off to meet the ship and by lamp signal indicated the new position, to which it guided the warship, firing flares to give the exact location. The destroyer, thus aided, saw the raft, from which all the men were rescued by a boat from the destroyer.