ESCAPE FROM DAKAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 May 1941, Page 6

ESCAPE FROM DAKAR

BRITISH PARTY'S ADVENTURE. EIGHTY MILES IN A LIFEBOAT. The story of a daring and exciting escape made by eight British and Allied residents who were interned at Dakar is told in a letter received recently from one of the erstwhile prisoners, a Dunedin boy. E. D. Hodge. Hodge was working for a builder in Wellington at the outbreak of the war and signed on a vessel trading between this country and England. When he reached England he transferred to a Greek boat, and it was apparently from this ship that he was interned at Dakar by the French authorities. His letter, which was written at Bathurst. Gambia, is as follows: — "Hip, hip, hurrah! At last I am able to write to you all. I am free and safe in an English port after nearly 10 months of imprisonment in Dakar. What a difference there is under the British flag. We despaired of ever getting away. The United States Consul had given up trying to get us free, and there seemed no way out. The Dakar harbour was guarded by nets, destroyers, submarines, and patrol boats, day and night, but last Monday night we talked an officer into helping us, and we launched a lifeboat into the water, and eight of us —two Canadians, one Jamaica boy, three Greeks, a boy from Cyprus, and myself—crept into it.

“We sneaked between a patrol boat and a submarine, and worked our way through the net, and beat it. We got a fright when a submarine cut right across our stern about 50 feet away, but they did not' see us in the darkness. Then we hoisted the sail and were lucky to get a strong wind for about five hours. After that the wind died, and we had to row like the devil.

"Tuesday afternoon we got another fright as a French ship changed her course and circled round us. We thought the game was up,,but they left us alone and we kept on. Wednesday morning we nearly sailed into the French port of Koalach by mistake, but got away without being seen. Then, thank the Lord, a strong wind came up and wc made good time, actually catching and passing a Portuguese schooner outside Bathurst. “At 5 o'clock, 42 hours after leaving Dakar, we pulled into Bathurst — 80 miles with a lot of zig-zagging. And what a welcome! The police—the military—even the Governor welcomed us to Gambia. They have given us good beds, good food, and some money, and done everything in their power to make us welcome. Good old English. “This afternoon. I think, wo sail for Freetown, where we can get a ship for England, and we arc anxious to get into things. The boys are all excited and happy. It is like being born again, being here. No words could describe Dakar —the insults of the French, the food, dry bread and macaroni and goats’ meat at. the last. We, are enjoying good English meals. I guess Dakar will be torn apart by the Governor and the admiral, as we are (he first British to get away: in fact, the only white British not in concentration camps."