London, Dec. 22.
Six survivors of the Swedish steamer Lister (1,366 tons) were rescued on December 20 by the cooperation of British aircraft and a destroyer.
A Royal Air Force Coastal Command machine, on its way to deal with an urgent military objective many miles away, sighted what appeared to be wooden planks scattered from a ship's cargo. Closer investigation showed a rough raft on which six men stood waving their hands. Unable to divert from its objective, the aircraft sent a reassuring lamp signal to the men on the raft, and radioed a code to its base, giving the position of the find.
At once was action taken. Another aircraft was sent to the position to keep watch, and a destroyer ordered out to pick up the men, "Meanwhile, a fierce gale had arisen, driving the raft far from the position given by the first aircraft, The second machine, not finding the raft near We indicated position, carried out a close search, taking the reported position as the centre and sweeping the sea for 100 miles around.
Eventually, the raft was sighted with the six men still on it. The destroyer, however, was still many miles away and steaming towards the first reported position. The aircraft set off to meet the ship, and by a lamp signal indicated the new position to which it guided the warship, firing flares to give the exact location: The destroyer, thus aided, saw the raft from which all the men were rescued.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.