Torpedoed Part 2 of 2

Heroes Remember

Torpedoed Part 2 of 2

Transcript

So it was all very orderly, I must say. We, we lowered the boats and we had some old ladies and we also had a one and a half year old baby. There was a mixed, not very many people, but a mixed bag of evacuees or whatever you want to call them. And we all got into the life-boat or the life-boat that I was in, and had to, had to heave these women into the, into the, into the life-boat. You know, they were terrified that the life boat would move out from the ship's side leaving this yawning chasm of thirty feet with cold Atlantic at the bottom of it. And so we had to lift them, literally lift them all into the life-boat. We, we were the last ship in the convoy and we were supposed to be the, the pick-up ship, the rescue ship and, so we, we rowed away in the dark, but you can't row very far in the North Atlantic and after, you know, after we got a safe distance from the ship, we just stopped rowing. And we, we, we went, went up and down the Atlantic swell for about five hours. But after five hours, a Canadian Corvette called HMCS Morden came to pick us up and that was really a scary operation.

Description

Mr. Sutherland continues hi story about being torpedoed aboard the SS Winnipeg II.

Donald Marshall Sutherland

Donald Marshall Sutherland, was born in Toronto on the 22nd of June 1916. His parents couldn't afford to send him to university and so he worked at the Bank of Commerce. After the war broke out, he joined navy as an ordinary seaman. Canada didn't have any means of training naval sailors at that time; so he was sent to England to be trained. He was involved mostly in mine dismantling. When he returned to Canada he finished his studies.

Meta Data

Medium:: Video
Owner:: Veterans Affairs Canada
Duration:: 01:59
Person Interviewed:: Donald Marshall Sutherland
War, Conflict or Mission:: Second World War
Branch:: Navy
Rank:: Officer
Occupation:: Mine Disposal

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Torpedoed Part 2 of 2

Heroes Remember