SEA RESCUE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 August 1942, Page 4

SEA RESCUE

MADE BY NEW ZEALAND HOSPITAL SHIP CREW OF TORPEDOED TANKER PICKED UP. INCLUDING SEVERAL PERSONS INJURED. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A hospital ship staffed by New Zealanders provided much-needed medical attention for several members of the crew of a torpedoed tanker who were picked up in the Indian Ocean early in June, after having been in lifeboats for about twelve hours. One of the survivors had a fractured pelvis and would have died had skilled medical attention been long delayed. An S.O.S. from the tanker was picked up by the hospital ship at about 4.30 one morning and a course was set for the locality given. Some twelve hours later, two small craft were sighted on the horizon, and as the ship approached one of them it was seen to be a lifeboat, with 23 persons aboard. The afternoon was beautifully calm and when help was requested the hospital ship draw alongside the first boat to take the occupants aboard. There were four cases of injury—the most serious a fractured pelvis —and a Neill Robertson stretcher was was used to bring the injured persons up the side, one of the ship’s officers and a medical officer having descended by a rope ladder. The other survivors in the boat, who included the captain and his wife, were able to climb and the ship headed for the other boat. This contained sixteen more survivors, in charge of the chief officer. One of the men had a fractured limb. All the injuries had been caused by an explosion throwing the men about on the tanker, and there were several cases of shock. According to the survivors, the conning tower of a submarine was sighted at about four o’clock that morning, and they had fired at it first with a single gun, but missed. The submarine launched three torpedoes, one of which hit, and the ship sank in a matter of minutes after the first torpedo had been fired. There was a pause before the others and the crew were given a reasonable chance to take to the boats. Once in the boats they were not attacked again. Three of the crew could not be accounted for. They were in the vicinity of a gun position near which the torpedo hit. Some time later, those on the hospital ship heard a rumour that these three had been picked up from a raft. The hospital ship landed the survivors at an Allied port, the injured going to hospital The survivors, a majority of whom had taken to the boats in night attire, had been given clothes and were profuse in their gratitude, the captain’s wife especially, since she had found herself among womenfolk in the nurses. Before leaving the hospital ship, the rescued people made an inquiry for the address of the patriotic fund in New Zealand, the object, it was understood, being, to send a gift in money in appreciation of the help and kindly treatment they had received.