Survival at Sea

Alan Shard

Letter to his Parents, 1942.

Whilst rummaging through his mother's effects, Capt. Alan Shard found this letter that he had written three days after being picked up by a British corvette, HMS Saxifrage. This is a transcript of original flimsy airmail paper regarding the loss of his ship Putney Hill, on June 25th, 1942, en route from CapeTown to New York .

Putney Hill.
Hotel Capitol July 7th, 1942 Tuesday
Stop 12,
Santurce.
Puerto Rico.
West Indies.

Dear Mother and Dad

I am writing this in a hotel writing room with a scratchy old pen so you must allow for it. I suppose you have heard all about it from the Company or Red Cross or Auntie Annie whom I wrote Sunday asking to cable you. It has been quite an experience and I can still hardly credit that I am safe and sound in good hands. It seems all a dream after 9 days in a crowded lifeboat living on 1 oz of water, 2 Horlick's malted milk tablets a piece of Cadbury chocolate biscuit 2 square and one teaspoonful of Pemmican which is a kind of Bovril extract that was for breakfast and tea. Just had water for dinner. These stores were only put on at Liverpool. Twice we had a tot of rum or brandy and spoonful of Condensed milk. One night it rained very hard for half an hour and we caught nearly 4 gallons in the sail.

We got ours on June 25th at 11-30pm on a bright moonlight night, about 400 mils East of nearest land and only one week from New York. Still in the Tropics mind. I was lucky enough to be on watch at the time so I was dressed :- that is trousers, singlet, socks and shoes which is all one required even at that time of the night.

When the impact came I put on my life-jacket as the old tub heeled over at an alarming angle. I found that both port boats were useless the small one smashed against the funnel. I jumped into the starboard big boat with a small gas mask haversack which had my camera, woolens, chewing gum, wallet & silver souvenirs in it. As the lifeboat filled up with partly clothed men it became apparent that the seams were leaking badly. We bailed out furiously with the pump, buckets, my hat & anything available. Meanwhile the small boat had been lowered and into it we loaded the portable wireless, sextants and charts. To our dismay it sank almost immediately to the rollocks throwing the skipper & several men in the water.

We pushed off from the ship whose rails were nearly in the water and had got about 100 yds away when our boat decide to slowly turn over. Didn't we curse the B.O.T. I spotted a raft which I swam for just before we capsized. We were thankful for the moon. I was second aboard it and helped to pull on board 8 more.

We watched the others hanging on to the overturned lifeboat as we slowly drifted away. Somehow I didn't feel scared at all, it seemed like a cinema show except I was wet thru and had lost my pack. We were all suddenly jerked to our senses by a four inch shell bursting against the ships side and to our great consternation the sub had appeared on the surface and he had target practice from about 400 yds. He
didnt put her under till nearly 12-30am.

Wednesday.

Ive got hold of a better pen now and have just reread my letter. I find that I could write a book on it if I carried on so as this has to go airmail at 40 cents (2/-) a half ounce I will condense it to a minimum. We spent the night on the raft in company with one or two sharks after being interrogated by the U-boat commander who mercifully didnt shoot us and handed out some fags and matches. He said there wasnt much hope tho the cheerful blighter . In the morning we had the good luck to find that the boats had been righted by the rest of the crew and we transferred. Most of the gear was lost. For 9 days and 9 nights we sailed a steady course fixed by the Captain.

Only 2 boys had been lost. A week later the 4th Eng. died of oil burns in our boat. We buried him right away. On July 4th Independence Day we were in the direct path of one of His Majestys Corvettes by pure luck. Taken onboard hardly able to stand we were given baths, food and clothes. I met a lad from 31 Heys Rd., Prestwich called Ralph Posner. We both knew the same people. He gave me a singlet and lent
me shaving tackle and also his bunk for the night. We could hardly believe our luck.

Arrived here next morning. The American Red Cross has fitted us up with tropical clothes & we get some more tomorrow. You would have laughed to see us dressed up. I am wearing a white shirt, green trousers & white stripes, coloured socks , brown & white buckskin shoes. Others have pink shirts & blue trousers. We are having fun tho the best we can on what bit of money we can get. My war bonus has stopped now so will only be getting about 1 dollar 25c a week so I wont be able to write very often as you can see. You would be very surprised to see the grub. I am eating Chicken Noodle & Tomato soups my favourite so far. Have had spinach which is a miracle for me. I guess I would eat anything that didn't bite me first. At present I am just resting here and waiting for a ship back to the States and then home for a month or so.

Let Auntie Annie know address immediately it will save postage.
Please explain the position to Joyce and give her my love.

Your Loving Son
Alan
xxxx

Subsequently found out that the sub that sunk the PUTNEY HILL was the U 203. The U 203 was in turn sunk on 25 April 1943 south of Greenland by depth charges dropped by Swordfish aircraft from HMS BITER and from the destroyer HMS PATHFINDER. Thirty eight of her crew survived and ten died. The U 203 sank a total of 21 ships of 94,296 grt and damaged 3 others of 17,052 grt.

The commander of the submarine when the PUTNEY HILL was sunk, Mulzelburger, had an odd death. In
September 1942 he allowed his crew to swim in the ocean. He was about to dive from the conning tower when the boat rolled and he landed on the saddle tank and died of his injuries the next day.

HMS SAXIFRAGE was a Flower Class Corvette, built in 1941 in Bristol, England. She was sold to Norway in
1947 and was renamed POLAR FRONT.

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