

At about midnight we thought we heard a boat and 

 lighted our last red fuse. Luckily a trawler saw it and 

 we could see her looming up in the night. As we pulled 

 along the side (and by the way, we had no oarlocks 

 except some of our own invention) the waves surely 

 gave us a racking. For an hour the sea had been kick- 

 ing up quite a mess. Well, we pulled along side and 

 the trawler picked off two or three of our men as we 

 rose to the top of each successive wave. They grabbed 

 for me once just as we were dropping into the trough, 

 but I dodged them, prepared for the next rise and 

 landed safely on deck. 



"We were hungry, wet and thankful as we hit for 

 the hold. Yet we did not realize until later how much 

 we had to be thankful for. We had been drifting onto 

 a rockbound coast in the teeth of a seven-knot tide. 

 Some of the other boats drifted onto that shore and the 

 men were dashed to death on the rocks. 



"I located a seat on the head of an upright cylinder 

 and prepared to dry my clothes. We cruised about for 

 two hours looking for other boats before we set off for 

 the coast of Ireland. It was surely 'a spot from heaven, 

 dropped from out the sky so blue.' The most hospita- 

 ble community on earth. The people treated us better 

 than they would at home. Nothing was too good for 

 us, and I made several life-long friends, two of whom 

 are lieutenants in the British navy and with whom I 

 now correspond. 



* ' Our company was the most fortunate, figuring on a 

 percentage basis; we lost only eight men. 



"I shudder to think what the result might have been 

 had the sea of the night before been running. 



31 



