Ship's Carpenter Acts as Midwife to Refugees Hands clasped behind their backs, 125 officers and men paced, with puckered brows, the decks of a French destroyer ploughing her way through Spanish waters, They were waiting for news, not of an attack on a merchantman, nor of a possible submarine menace. Like so many agitated fathers, they awaited the safe birth of the third Spanish refugee child who was to see the light aboard their ship- within twenty-four hours. Then came the signal from the ship's carpenter, who, being married to a midwife, was in charge of a makeshift maternity ward: "Carpenter's compliments, sir," the Commander was informed, "Señora Escarmota has given birth to a boy. Mother and child both doing well So ended sixteen hours' suspense which had attended the birth of the last baby, states the "Sunday Reforce."
The destroyer was on patrol duty eff the north coast of Spain recently, when two fishing boats asked her to take on board twenty-two orphan babies, seven women with babies in arms, and three expectant mothers. The Commander wirelessed his flagship: "Have taken on board ten women and 32 babies, What am I to do with them?"
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.