I won't go into details but after about two hours of intermittent firing we had to abandon the ship Never shall I forget those two hours or the getting away down a rope ladder into the lifeboat. There wera 57 of us in our boat. and only three of us women, Then followed three days drifting around in the hope of being picked up—72 hours—in the tropical sun. on rations of 1% ship's biscuits per day and about a M cup of water. Actually things might have been very much worse than they were—the worst part was the terrible uncertainty, for We mere (we found later) at least 1,000 miles from land.
I have never had a severer test of faith, as hour after hour. and day after day went by and still we were not saved, But the Lord had heard and answered. on the morning of the 4fh day. Shall I ever forget the thrill of the moment when we saw a British cargo boat coming towards us? We had sailed nearly 200 miles from our starting point. Our rescue was nothing short of a miracle, But for engine trouble which had meant several hours delay, the ship would "have passed us in the night AN said it was a miracle that our lifeboat, so crowded and so low in the water, had remained afloat so long.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.