HE WANTED ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 February 1942, Page 4

HE WANTED ACTION

YOUNG ENGLISH VAN DRIVER. MERCHANT NAVY SUPPLIED IT. A young van driver, Edward Gallop, aged 21, used to say every morning before the war when he left his home in Brighton, “I wish something would happen. This job is so monotonous.” Then this happened. Gallop joined up, went to sea in the merchant service and was torpedoed in mid-Atlantic. He spent 19 days in an open boat before being picked up. “I was in my hammock when the torpedo struck,” he told a newspaper reporter. “I got into the last lifeboat to leave the ship. There were 20 of us in it. It capsized and pitched us all into the sea.

“Only 16 of us climbed back into the lifeboat. It nearly filled up with water, and we had to bale all through the first night. After a few days at sea this became terribly monotonous. We all became terribly weak. On the 13th day one of the officers died. Then our water ran out.

“An amazing thing happened then. A raft floated up, and on it we found a canister of fresh water, 12 tins of milk and some milk tablets. We used a piece of canvas to make a sail, and took turns in steering the boat. “On the 18th day we shared our last drop of water. Next day we sighted a wisp of smoke on the horizon, and a ship rescued us.” And today Edward Gallop is off to the war again. He can’t bear monotony.