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Lost at Sea

From Atlantic Torpedo - The record of 27 days in an open boat following a U-boat sinking by the only woman survivor by Doris Hawkins S.R.N., S.C.M.:

Doctor Purslow developed a deep infection of his left hand and arm and of his right foot and leg...His glands began to swell, and red lines streaked his arm and leg. He felt ill, and we were anxious. His condition did not improve at all, and as he became weaker, he relinquished his self-appointed task of handing out the water ration, and lay day and night, only moving when necessary, and scarcely speaking at all...One morning, about nineteen weary days after the ship was torpedoed, I heard voices, and after a while realised that one was his, although I could not hear exactly what was being said. I gathered that, realising that he was a potential source of infection to the rest of us, Doctor Purslow had come to a great decision.
I stumbled to where he was sitting, and tried to speak to him, but no words came. He was quite conscious, and in a voice stronger than I had heard from him for many days, he said: "As I cannot be of any further help, and if I am now a source of danger to you all, it is better that I should go." As he heaved himself painfully up the side of the boat, I found my voice, and said: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." He said: "Goodbye", and with a long look, he took that final step backward. The sea closed over him.

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Background
In 1943 Doris Hawkins published a small booklet entitled The record of 27 days in an open boat following a U-boat sinking by the only woman survivor. In the introduction she expressed her wish that people fortunate enough to have remained at home should realise just what some of their countrymen and countrywomen have had to endure, and what ruthless submarine warfare means in terms of human suffering. Her book finishes with her wish that it brings home to others...all that 'those who go down to the sea in ships' face for our sakes, hour by hour, day by day, year in and year out.