Torpedoed (part 2 of 2)

I was picked up fairly quickly and we were taken over. It was dark by this time and I remember being sick in this darn boat. It was kind of choppy. Get up to the Monterrey and I never, I knew boats were big, ours wasn't, the boat I was on wasn't very large but this Monterrey was a big ship that sailed from Vancouver or San Francisco I guess, down south and they had scramble nets over the side. Unfortunately our boat came up to a scramble net hanging down not far from the boat on the highest part and I remember when you looked at that scramble net and with the roll of the sea, one moment you were way up and right beside it, the next moment this thing was you know, twenty feet above you. So you had to wait until the time was right. You grabbed the net, which I did and started up and I really kept on going. I remember hearing a voice from above saying, "Take it easy chum, take it easy! You're there." Sunday morning had a church service up on deck. The sun was bright! A band of the Irish Regiment was onboard. I always remember them playing "O God our help in ages past" and "The Sailors Hymn" and I never hear them but now . . . but our own ship didn't sink at that time and after that church service somebody said, "Look over there!" and sure enough we could see a small tug pulling our boat. We thought, "Oh boy we're all set cause we'll get our, you know, stuff back." And right before our eyes we saw it drop down out of sight, gone.

Interviewer: Now that, the Monterrey that stopped. That's unusual, usually like if you fella's had been in the Atlantic it wouldn't have stopped for you?

Well I don't know. The circumstances were rather different. They had that hospital with a bunch of nursing sisters onboard and I think things like that play a part.

Interviewer: Was there much loss of life?

No. There was very...

Interviewer: Everybody got off?

Everybody got off. One nursing sister slipped going up that scramble net but she was alright. And the only loss of life that occurred on our ship itself, the Santa Elena was where it had been hit by the torpedo. And some of the crew, three or four stokers were lost, yeah. We got out of that very, very well. Very well indeed!