500 Shipwrecked People Saved by Coastal Planes London, Oct. 7.
Drifting helplessly on the wastes of the Atlantic, two boatloads of people, survivors of a lost ship, suffered severely from thirst, Suddenly, a Sunderland flying-boat, searching for submarines while escorting a convoy, swooped down. The crew had spotted two dots on the ocean.
The survivors signalled that they had food but no water. The crew of the flying-boat dropped their own fresh water supply and then went off to fetch a rescue ship to the scene.
A few days later, two women on a raft were sighted from the air and they also were saved.
Telling these stories, the news service of the Air Ministry states that nearly 500 survivors of ships lost in the Atlantic have been saved in the last few months by good work of aircraft of the Coastal Command.
Sunderland flying-boats—both of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force—and other aircraft patrol far out into the Atlantic every day, escorting convoys, the Ministry said.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.