Two veterans recalled the horrific memory of watching 12 of their comrades die, after being stranded for 50-days at sea, during the Second World War.
Colin Armitage and Kenneth Cooke opened up about how he and his crew were left adrift on a small boat in the middle of the ocean with sharks circling below and little chance of rescue, reports Hull Live. With the sun beating down and few rations left, both were close to death.
During the war, they were left stranded after their Merchant Navy ship, SS Lulworth Hill, was torpedoed by an Italian submarine in March 1943, with the crew scrambling to safety aboard a lifeboat hundreds of miles off the coast of Africa. Now, eighty years on, both are being honoured with new plaques in their respective communities.
The pair opened up about the harrowing incident, recalling their tale 80-years after the event. The ship left from Hull but days after leaving a port in West Africa the Italian torpedo struck them, and the vessel sank in just two minutes.
Colin, was the first to make it to the lifeboat, with Ken was next to board. He was then followed by 12 others. The Chief Officer, Basil Scown, said they were nowhere near the shipping lanes, where they might stand a chance of being rescued, and at least 800 miles from the safety of the West African shore.
Scown calculated that it would take 30 days to get there, and he rationed up the small quantity of biscuits, chocolate and water they had to last the journey. Ken kept a diary and recorded the sailors’ experiences. Years later, it ended up on display in the Imperial War Museum, London.
The men spent the first fraught and tense days scanning the horizon for ships. Morale would be boosted fleetingly when they caught the odd fish but then sharks began to circle the boat.
It wasn't long before men began to perish. Officer Scown was the first on the 19th day.
Colin and Ken removed his wedding ring and later handed it to his wife. Other crewmates soon followed. Some went mad after drinking sea water, while others jumped overboard to be eaten by sharks.
By day 35, only Colin and Ken remained alive but on day 46 the rations were almost completely gone. A plane passed overhead but the pair weren't hopeful it had even noticed them.
But, the next day another approached and dropped life-saving supplies. On day 50, Colin spotted HMS Rapid on the horizon after the planes had guided the ship to the two men.
After recovering in Cape Town both travelled home to Hull. Colin married his sweetheart, Kathleen, received the George Medal and the Lloyd’s Medal for Bravery at Sea. The couple had three children together, Peter, James and Jane.
Tragically, the ordeal took its toll and Colin died in 1950, aged just 28. His wife brought up their children single-handedly, and died aged 92 in 2013. Colin's granddaughter, Louise Beech, became a journalist and wrote a book about him: How To Be Brave, becoming a top 10 bestseller.
Louise previously told Hull Live: "I am immensely proud of my grandfather. There were about 60 men on the SS Lulworth Hill, when it was hit by a torpedo. It sank in minutes. Fourteen men made it to the life rafts, but only two survived the ordeal. They survived on a few ounces of water, a tiny bit of chocolate and whatever fish they could catch.
"They were regularly attacked by sharks. He nicknamed one of the sharks that followed the raft Scarface. Some of the men were lost to dehydration, others had had enough and jumped overboard.
"Of course, the big unanswered question is why did my grandfather and Kenneth Cooke survive when so many others didn't. At that time, he didn't have a sweetheart or children, but one of his brothers, Stan, was lost at sea earlier in the war. I believe he felt he needed to survive his ordeal to prevent his poor mother going through all that again."
Kenneth, who later became a gamekeeper, wrote his own book entitled ‘Man on a Raft’. Colin's plaque is due to be unveiled by his family at 11am on Sunday, May 7, at the Minerva Pier in Hull, while Ken's will be presented at 3pm on Bridlington Harbour.
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