大象传媒

On the 3rd feb. 1940 my father was serving
on HMS Boreas when the ship intercepted a
signal from HMS Speedwell saying that
HMS Sphinx had been badly damaged by two
bombs.The captain proceeded to the position
with HMS Brazen to render any assistance.
The Sphinx had been taken in tow by
HMS Skipjack and on arrival the Boreas
and Brazen undertook a/s screening,the Boreas on the stbd.side and Brazen to port.
Conditions were extremely unpleasant.The wind was of gale force,the night was very
dark and the sea rapidly becoming very rough.
The Speedwell signalled shortly after that
the tow had parted and 'stand by the Sphinx
abandoning ship'.The Boreas closed at 16 knots and between 0330 and the time the
Sphinx rolled over the Boreas went alongside 3 times and took off 7 men.
On the first two occasions only one man
was taken off on each occasion.On the third
occasion rescued 5 men.The sea at that time
was now very heavy.The Sphinx had a big list
to stbd.and the men were very reluctant to
jump to the forecastle of the Boreas which
was moving up and down some 15 feet
at the second and third time of going alongside an attempt was made to float a
carley raft between the ships but this failed due to the prevailing conditions.
Abandoning the carley raft idea a signal
was sent to the Sphinx advising that the Boreas was coming alongside again.While
attempting this the Sphinx foundered.The
Boreas went to windward of the largest group
of sailors in the sea and drifted down on
them.By 0515 the Boreas had rescued 30 men.
Of these one subsequently died.Only two were not picked,one of whom was the Sphinx's coxswain.These two drifted astern
and were lost.The Boreas's crew worked hard to save these men.Conditions were bad as
could be imagined with the Boreas rolling
anything up to 40 degrees either side and the cold made rescue work very difficult.
Many men at considerable risk to themselves went over the side on bowlines to pass lines
around the men in the sea as the only way
to rescue them.

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