IN ICY SEAS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 May 1942, Page 4

IN ICY SEAS

HARDSHIPS OF CASTAWAY SEAMEN SURVIVORS FROM TORPEDOED SHIP. INVERCARGILL MAN’S ORDEAL. (Special P.A. Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 12.40 p.m.) LONDON, May 13. Thick ice fprmed on the legs of Able Seaman Thomas Henry King, of Invercargill, when he and 30 sailors clung on to a Carley float for. two hours when their ship sank during a convoy voyage. The ice prevented King swimming towards a rescue ship. “I was on the mess deck preparing for tea,” he relates, “when there was a terrific crash and all lights went out. We rushed up to the upper deck and were ordered to abandon ship. I helped to get a Carley float overboard and also helped a wounded man, but he died in the water, which was covered with fuel oil, four inches thick. The water was bitterly cold, but I struggled towards the float, kicking off everything except my trousers and singlet. Then we sat, blue with the cold and our teeth chattering, trying to keep up our spirits until we were picked up. I have never been colder in all my life. Two men eventually picked me off the float and removed the ice from my legs. We were stripped and massaged, given a welcome tot of rum and put between blankets. I was all right after six hours. Miraculously I did not catch a chill, but I still feel a bit weak m the legs. It was so cold that ice. formed very thickly all over the ship, for which reason we were obliged to do rounds playing a steam hose on every required movable part, for instance anti-aircraft guns and machinery, in order to keep them in working order.