Word: raft
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Water. As soon as possible after a ship is torpedoed, a lifeboat's or life raft's leader should count the survivors, compute the probable period before rescue and the prospects of rain, then ration the stock of water. The minimum daily ration should be 18 ounces until only one pint per man remains; after that each should be given two ounces daily. Lips can be moistened, the mouth rinsed with sea water, but "there is no doubt that large draughts of sea water cause death and even small amounts may prejudice a man's chance...
Then Captain Rickenbacker told how death came to a 22-year-old sergeant, the only crew member lost. He swallowed salt water when his raft overturned, drank more later, died of saltwater poisoning and starvation. Captain Eddie stared hard at the table in front of him: "On the eleventh night this boy was very low. The waves kept beating over the raft. . . . For two nights I cuddled him like a mother would, hold a child, trying to give him warmth from my body. At 3 a.m. I heard his final gasp. . . ." Then came the rescue by a Navy flying boat...
First the Dorniers, then dive-bombers roar down for the kill, and Captain Kinross' ship goes down with more than half her crew. Then, while the Captain and a few sailors, covered with fuel oil and sprayed with machine-gun bullets, cling precariously to a raft in the scummy water, the camera flashes back to tell the whole story of the ship...
...Raft, by Robert Trumbull ($2.50), and They Were Expendable, by W. L. White ($2), came closest to catching the adventure of war without scooping up too much of its bitter dross...
Grinning his deathless grin and fit enough to travel soon was Captain Edward Vernon Rickenbacker. Reviewing his 24 days on a raft, he recalled the "nearness of death." Said the indestructible Eddie: "I know I came within hearing distance of the Old Fellow this trip because his approach is always unmistakable. One hears beautiful, soft music, and everything is extremely pleasant-just as Heaven should...