GALLANT FIGHT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 October 1941, Page 4

GALLANT FIGHT

AGAINST NAZI AIRCRAFT. CRIPPLED TRAWLER GETS BACK TO PORT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, October 16. The crew of the trawler Ben Screel, from North Shields, by skill and courage saved the ship and themselves following an attack by a German twinengined bomber. The first bomb blew off the rudder, damaged the stern posts, snapped one blade of the propeller and blew the tips off the others. Meanwhile the Ben Screel was filling rapidly and the men made ready to launch a boat. A high swell was,running and it was necessary to bring the trawler stern on to it to get the boat away, but the rudder was. blown away. Thinking quickly in tyle hail of bullets, the skipper got tiver the side and, by using the winch to veer and haul, the trawlboard was made to act as a jury rudder. The Ben Screel came slowly stern on to the swell. The trawler continued to fire at the aircraft, which eventually turned for home, losing height and with smoke pouring from it. Steering with the improvised rudder and with the pumps barely keeping pace-with the incoming water, the Ben Screel made for the Tyne at the best speed the crippled propeller could give her. Doggedness and fine seamanship nursed her to safety. Later the skipper said the ship could have lasted less than 60 minutes longer when she reached port, but she lives to fight another day. .