大象传媒

This letter was from my father-in-law Robert Clay 1904-1981 (of the Merchant Navy) to Mary, (1907-1992) his wife. Mail from abroad was written on a form which was then micro-filmed and sent by air to Britain where it was developed, enlarged, put in an envelope and sent to the addressee.

My father-in-law, a chief electrician with Port Line, was torpedoed twice during the war, in 1940 and 1943, he was missing presumed killed. The first time, 11th October 1940, his ship, the Port Gisborne, was in mid-Atlantic. The survivors in his life-boat were all soaking wet, having been tipped into the sea when the life-boat was launched, and ill, having swallowed torpedo fumes. They took another lifeboat in tow and rowed both boats close to the west coast of Scotland where they were picked up by the Royal Navy on 22nd October, after 11 days in the freezing cold Atlantic. Able Seaman Sidney Light, the only qualified seaman on board, was one of the first recipients of the George Medal for his actions in bringing them home.

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