THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1950.
What happened to 135 human pawns of fate. adrift in a tropical
sea for 26
days
This is the story of the dramas enacted in a small lifeboat which drifted for 26 days in the Indian Ocean after a ship had been torpedoed on March 1, 1942.
On the first day there were 80 people in it and about 50 more in the water clinging to it. When finally it drifted ashore on a lonely island there were only four survivors, a Scottish soldier, a Chinese girl, and two Javanese sailors.
This narrative, telling the epic story for the first time, was written by the one white
survivor. WALTER GIBSON, of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.
I'R lifeboat was 28ft. hatred fellow with
long, and only 8ft, ni hard
The widest part. The I uke! over the Pule, gunwales were T more must have been 50 more buen than a few mehes above the level of the water.
Dawn of tant first ing. March 2, 1912, erept up and lit the serie
There were N of es tn the Teemal. Whith Fund besar boult to hold 28
Most
dates
!...
fringe of hight
the Alurred posophie słuzulung, arja 175 73
f The
himself took brigadier of the fret spells in the
water
There
We made slowly prowans 1
The men was prudentVITIA
If t V na dachrager sk
Towards evening there won dramader nervnt.
by Lieut- coloured Dragbar of the Indian Ordnance Comps, whe wum fr
raft Seine bedred yards away
The effects in the heat were Constrous
Conging there in the water. All about us, walls at walms of lauf
smar the Tudung heart
ORXAN DIES
what
TORPEDO STRUCK Shock at midnight
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As Text
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190 189 Kaly
Whatch
k
Nj
chargere at Tadour
LIFEBOAT
khaki shunts
been
whines the forpedo struck
Unes
*Archiv
sleeping
Poris
was due fat fre major-general commanding the
"ן
1011ess DIE bayude Wilke Me Deered,
DANG
PRI
Lat
Mas nerves, we could otter, weder strung to beenkatut prout
He told me that with, ham on
bart
about) teman, bin ing blown of his Daneen reposiek
wh
Cras palies!
CURSE OF SUN Drove men crazy
AE welcontent that first dawan W
Hal brow I' te that followed, we We use atat bate that broy Plazang, bigastas og Junkte which was the su
The win wine drove me f
sjebiopolim
brander subessable
whiz
mit bodies, scors hard mat the moisture that was life
On the Test marg 41 wat nitely light nual heal, after a shivering night
four disk, take
18 Lett. Cots is of om positions
A currant elect Band 135
markahan Warises
the
water Wit Jonking to thet Buckleshell t bout for padyak-
W Look Tally of wit tend and Water With sank ingt henrks we toward the Tom! sumontuost
There wer 48 12 99 line of bonly beef, Two .-14.
spiceri
which the puteli mali rausi goreng, 2 38 taus
condere lk, 2016 JAN
Lotties
fred water The Brigastart townd up in the
el called for alteraons
Pas who braut digulierest
erewest of the Argylla Borgersker
WEET
TIM
I was
Tax tving
apro wiesi
1. L 11th Indian Division in Malaya.
WE Sught persing on was rad only a khak Nart, There wallets a
24
Ax warraul o
fare
The st chambed, pushet it all. I teled that hdded to sen as he nakesi. Into the
bloge,
Aut
งา!
11%
الات
11
MinDenkel
All about e
19.3
There were three wożen One, pleasant. Tat+t+r} notherly-leviting in khacky start whole. and shacks, I recurmised as atta
WHEN
ferre neid wander
sex poloer job, Thre
Thy
kad dock falas. Jim Pal- www of my content that
14 GEN
and Magni
"
thr
One of the ROOSEBOOM'S lifeboats, similar to that in which the voyage was made.
Actually it was brandy-and Numbers 121 The bout Bad
MarDonkel had spent the day dwindled, 100, and Paris ordered インゴ the ruft drinking 1 in son
attempt to assunga big thirst.
"Angus
Menalk in laying #marthen 1 had to
H
trying to shte of the call “
WAN
We gave Death a spontual ef mulk and water Temd hear youer 118ng Palety un br boost Fas Al
Thu
.: Ceai mar
next 18
י י }
1st
The want
Pinaglasen,
14 What
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1 heard an
+
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war le unge
caatic abras
But b Wat hetope for tips the breast capa " The
N
Wie
5.
BRAVEST MAN
On his own raft
NEXT murdu; the infit 1 have
always 122 E Wan bravest roller among us stepped forward with a suggestion,
It was Major Noel Corrie It wazurk! ease the most unbear- abio overcrowding, he told the bragatter is be und BOO volunteers could construet a raft
which they might be iuwed behind the drilling boat.
Corrie and some 20 of the mum,
tharen ist mehrling two or Jovaneze seamen, swam around collecting debris with which to construct there raft
the
When They had completed it, it was a shaky structure, 2011, by 20ft. tiel Together with stages of etojh, wort zesd files they land salvaged
meres of cord.
Currie to return.
He was pulled aboard more
dend Und alive,
and lits atlant, peous le raft was cut mirifi
He died that night.
NEW 'CODES' Respecting women
LREADY 11911 vole of bes band materjalised,
A small more bark been cleared
H:1
i wenzie
**** родка
chaping pataasist das Howarth, half-
bing had lear
At Gre where bens of the Jouef teach do be attended to, the Marliest wonki save the order: Ek to this bows" We would gaze abemi must give
12 c}}}
Now that y was roun 40 Mus Numm སཱགྷ॰ ༑མཾ།;། bal tej31: wwwzied,
For hurt:
Tage eftral as be Her hustot t
She tuit! prolong dan to safely.
me the story ary-eyed, und with pride, as in fed my arm in rough rope cling, seeking tu alleviate the grating pain.
They had been in their cabin when the torpedo struck. With- In seconds water, began to pour across the floor
Group-Captain Nunn lifted his wife and pushed her through the She came lo Square porthole.
REVISED EDITION
incor-
porating amendments to the LOCAL STORM SIGNAL CODE as approved at the Conference on Storm Warn- ing Procedures hald in Manila, May, 1949, for uso in Hong Kong as from lat January, 1950; and to tho China Sons Non-local Storm Signal Code for Visual Storm Warnings as agreed between the Moteorological Servico of Indo-China. the Central Weather Bureau of China, and the Royal Observatory, Hong Kong.
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SUNDAY
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Jan. 8
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the surface He did not follow. Fri. "Is Friday the 13th Unlucky?" (Thur, in Hongkong)}
The Chiume girl, I learned, wiss
Doris nud
Lam. She spoke English with a marked Athenean accvnit.
Later I was to know that she had been working with Briusa Intelligence 1/1 Northern China, She had escaped from Tientsin Just before the Japanese occupa-
DIKI TART
She was again just a jump alwart of them out of Shanghat Hongkong. Now she being evacuated from
The wurly days in the at all. Thies
That she spoke harilly used the stal
which they Sae would a; gazing abead of make a tow-rope,
the aes with the ammlung stolen
at her race
form the sea
WALTER GIBSON - the author the Mory. A formes N.C.O.. hans he
promuted beutenant in the lux days before bal the collapse of Malaya, but that was loss with other record
"f
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whipped
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of gutz
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Teresache awk
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shrewd blur eyes
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LO
Perhaps it was that folalinen, Then the 20 of them climbed that refusal to be stampeded ado
1
records when Singapore fell, He aboard, and the raft sank until despair which was To lead, 20 it knew him as 11
1 ནཿ་3『14
was, in fact, treated as an officer they were waist deep in water, days later to her staggering, she two surviving that and 1, the only Corne must have known! reened in two wars.
prisoner by the Japanese.
there could be unly one end to passengers, nshore on an island He was more exhausted að that
a thousand miles away, moment, pre
probably, Thina anyone Mktor MacDonald was the the course he had chosch.
through the the bol But he stood there, heir to £200,000 estate in Man by man
NEXT WEEK very erect, legs bare beneath the Lanarkshire,
followed, duys Seven yours latet three sunt-tail, adgressing his troop was to give
of his little band evidence in a members its of on di parasle ground.
court etion which declded that clipped off and disappeared. The captain," he said, "will
At Just there was only Curric he must be deac cortinand of the tool.
Muc Donid toolt with him himself, dazed with exhaustion, responsable For dis-
from the stup, said Douglas, his upper body blackened by the
flock which he thought con- Gun, his legs bleached by tained water.
Meal okry the deek, already slopant steep
Nuan, wife of Grong-Cantium ly. R. I.. Nunn, 175.0. Duectur ad Works at Sugapore.
There was stout, four-bacte ed woman of 30 or so, tu blouZNS and skut, carrying!
She was the wife of Dik, the
Duteli chief officer.
The part
ats, I
W 2006 The cap attempting
iw on
and crew were lower ane of the
Mupboard suit.
Around the other way a mall The third was a sum, pretty, Ing
As russel
watched, Chinese girl, clad in coloured something broke, and the boat shirt and skirt, her feet bare graphed bow-first into the seu.
Perched up the the bows, be you a packed group of whie
1734:31 (mostly soldiers), I could
catapulting will
dozens of
people
Oddly
See about i dozen Juvanese sva- { ran to the side. men;
midst their enough, though I wun 12 that serade, or bos'n, an old, white. Inter that my collar bone was
In ther
BRIGADIER A. C. M. PARIS
! he stood there very erect, legs
"bara" beneath; the "shirtställ, addressing his troops, as if on
Mukai parade ground.film
Piece of
broken a
mustat was ledge in my shus, and my ear arum had beta burst by blast, Felt ne pach,
INTO THE WATER Clinging to wood
shall t
"We were due in Colombo at dawn on Tuesday. This is Mon- lay When we don't turn up by Thursday they are bound to send admething out to look for us.
"That being so, the captain) has decided that it will be wher to say hem, in the vicinity off The sinkin. Something should; reach us by Friday.
"I look to you all, as
Britta solders and as men
who have equitted themselves well on the pensula, to retain your suldiers
y qualities until help arrives."
He told us that we would receive a tablespoonful of water af sun-up, a spoonful of
milk and water at night.
A tin of bully beef would be
E deck rail was almost shared among 12 people gach
THE
nwash. As I threw myself
day.
From her handbag, the Dutch
water
SATURDAY AT THE DIAN
the
Mad with thirst..... burned by the sun... heroism and tragedy stalk the boat
SHOE
Emergency Call
LITTLE before nine, the
phone rang.
"Glens Falls calling Dr Van Eyck," said the opera- tor.
"Speaking."
There was the usual, click and
by' Billy Rose
London Express Service
he
As Dr Van Eyck leaned for- word lo buck the wind, heard the car pick up speed and, when he Anally turned, the tall-light was out of sight.
It took a half hour. to find a telephone, and a lot of talking to persuade a, taxi company to send out a cab. At the railroad
Into the water and came to the mate's wife produced, or al sur- surface, the one thing I remain-
please, and then: objects, a tablespoon, 60-ahead cd conscious of was the contin- Prising
This
the is Dr Hayden at which, for all the time our
"I think I ought to tell you uing noise.
Glens Falls hospital. A water lasted, was to act as our
boy the kid's parents are poor and was brought in a little while ago there isn't much chance of a depot he found the next, train
Voices were shouting, "Where measure. are you, Mac?"
1s that you, Juck?"
There were choking cries for help. A voice Inevitably started "Roll Out The Barrel."
Near me a naked man clung to
a plece of debris.
I shouted, "Do you mind if
share your piece of wood?" -
"By all means, old man," replied.
She was carrying, ton, some thirst-quenching tables which the shared around.
BY ORDER Daily swim
FFICERS
brigadier
to... whom
the
with a bullet in. his brain. He's haemorrhaging badly and the
fee." pulse is pretty weak.“
I'm 0 miles from Glens Fulls," said Dr Vun Eyck. “Have . you tried Dr, Mercer at White- bull?"
"He's out of town," said Dr
"The Huydon.
renson
"That's all right," said Dr Van Eyck..
to Glens Falls-wasn't until 12.10. two when the It was after surgeon reached the hospital. Dr Haydon was waiting for him. "I did my best," said Van Eyek, "but my enr FEW minutes later, the "It was good of you to try." surgeon' car stopped for a sald Dr Haydon, but the boy I'm,
red light on the outskirts, of died, an hour ago. We couldn't could delegate calling you is that the boy Albany: A man in a brown stop the hemorrhaging.” Home of his responsibilities in happens to come from your city, leather jacket opened the door.
with cluded two lieutenant-colonela Ife was spending the week-end and climbed in,
"Drive straight ahead, inister," relatives here and shot himself playing with a 22."
S the two men walked past "You say
the boy's from he said, "and better, not make
#fuss-I've got 'n
A the welting-room, Van Eycle Albany?" Said Dr Van Eyck. "I'm a doctor," sa
sold. Van Eyck,
suddenly stopped. On one of "What's hla namo""
is an emergency. mud the talks, said hands, was the man in the "Never
the benches, his head in his "Arthur Cunningham." "Cunningham well, there are the car thief. Step on it
Army.
. Ackworth, of the Indian Fulmer of the Royal He was Assistant-Commis- Engineers two majors-Richard slener Roger Owen Davis, of the Dent, of the Indian Army, Noel Malay Police.j. He was to live Corrio, of the Engineers, only 24 hours in the lifeboat. Ho
soon showed him was to slump, down, exhausted, Ackworth
self strong character.
д
. He
"Mr Cunningham," vald Dr.
on the evening, of the first day. mnounced that, to lessen, the nut ut Cunninghams around Amile out of town the man frown leather jacket, and be crushed to death in the rigours of overcrowding, every here. Don't think I know him in the leather jacket ordered Haydon. "Meet Dr. Van Eyck. night,
man who was not injured must, Anyhow, Doctor, I'll get there the doctor to stop. E
He came all the way from Al We must have clung for an take a compulsory spell of four as fast as I can. It's snowingStart walking back toward bany to try to save your boy" hour to the place of wood before hours each day clinging to the pretty badly, but I think 2 can Albany," he said, and don't
urn or I'll shoot we saw, shadowy, in the moon-life-lines in the water, make it before midnight."
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