AMAZING STORY OF SURVIVAL
EAST YORKSHIRE MEN WATCHED 12 DIE AS THEY BATTLED STARVATION AND SHARKS
DURING a gruelling and horrific 50-day ordeal, they watched 12 of their comrades die.
Colin Armitage and Kenneth Cooke had been cast adrift in a small open boat, floating aimlessly in the ocean with few rations and little hope of being rescued. One by one, their crewmates succumbed under the beating sun.
Sharks circled as the men clung on to life. Their water had run out and Colin and Ken were close to death.
Even by the standards of the Second World War, theirs is a remarkable story of heroism, fortitude and survival. Colin, of Melton, and Ken, of Bridlington, were serving on the the SS Lulworth Hill, a ship of the Merchant Navy that had sailed from Hull docks, when it was torpedoed by an Italian submarine in March 1943.
Eighty years on, the men are being honoured with the unveiling of plaques in each of their home communities.
It was some days after leaving a port in West Africa that an Italian torpedo hit their ship, which sank in just two minutes. Colin, who was 21, was the first to make it to the tiny lifeboat designed for 12 men. The second aboard was Ken and he was followed by 12 others.
Basil Scown, the Chief Officer, realised that they were nowhere near the shipping lanes, where they might stand a chance of being rescued, and at least 800 miles from the safety of the West African shore. He calculated that it would take 30 days to get there.
The men had limited supplies. Biscuits, chocolate and tins of water had to be rationed, with one biscuit, one chunk of chocolate and a tiny cup of water per day. They decided not to eat anything until the following day to try to make the food last that little bit longer.
During the ordeal, Ken kept a diary, written in pencil on the sail cloth, in which he recorded the sailors’ experiences. Many years later, it ended up on display in the Imperial War Museum, London.
On the second day, the men woke with swollen tongues and a desperate thirst. They spent those first days scanning the horizon for ships or any signs of rare rainfall. It was a fraught time and tensions were high, with no respite from the boredom and the suffocating heat.
They did catch the odd fish, which boosted morale fleetingly. But sharks, sensing an easy meal, began to circle the boat. On the eighth day, it began to rain and the men celebrated. But as they licked and slurped the water, the rain suddenly stopped.
Officer Scown was the first to succumb on the 19th day. Colin and Ken removed his wedding ring, which they would later hand to his wife. Other crewmates soon followed. Some went mad after drinking sea water, while others jumped overboard to be eaten by sharks.
Some simply passed away where they were sitting. By the 35th day, only Colin and Ken remained alive. They drifted aimlessly and were at the mercy of the South Atlantic currents. By day 46, the chocolate was gone and then the biscuits. The water soon ran out too.
A plane passed overhead, but the two men thought it hadn’t seen them. However, the following day another plane approached and dropped live-saving supplies. On day 50, just hours from death, Colin spotted a ship on the horizon. HMS Rapid had been guided to them by the planes.
Once rescued, Colin and Ken recovered in Cape Town and then travelled home to Hull. Colin married his sweetheart, Kathleen, and never went back to sea. They interrupted their honeymoon to go to Buckingham Palace, where he received the George Medal and the Lloyd’s Medal for Bravery at Sea.
The couple had three children together, Peter, James and Jane. Sadly, Colin died in 1950, five years after the war ended, aged just 28, with his family blaming his horrendous ordeal for his ill health. He is buried at All Saints Church in North Ferriby. Kathleen, who worked tirelessly to bring up their children single-handedly, died aged 92 in 2013
Louise Beech, a former Hull Daily Mail writer and a granddaughter Colin never got to meet, wrote a book about his exploits called How To Be Brave. It was named an Amazon top 10 read and a Guardian readers’ pick.
Louise previously told Hull Live: “I am immensely proud of my grandfather. There were about 60 men on the SS Lulworth Hill, when it was hit by a torpedo. It sank in minutes. Fourteen men made it to the life rafts, but only two survived
the ordeal. They survived on a few ounces of water, a tiny bit of chocolate and whatever fish they could catch.
“They were regularly attacked by sharks. He nicknamed one of the sharks that followed the raft Scarface. Some of the men were lost to dehydration, others had had enough and jumped overboard.
“Of course, the big unanswered question is why did my grandfather and
Kenneth Cooke survive when so many others didn’t. At that time, he didn’t have a sweetheart or children, but one of his brothers, Stan, was lost at sea earlier in the war. I believe he felt he needed to survive his ordeal to prevent his poor mother going through all that again.”
Kenneth, who later became a gamekeeper, wrote his own book entitled What Cares the Sea?
A plaque honouring Colin was unveiled by his family on Sunday at the Minerva Pier in Hull. It overlooks the place from where the ship sailed on her final voyage. This plaque was paid for by UK Operational Support Services, a local security company.
At 3pm on the same day at Bridlington Harbour, a plaque honouring Ken was unveiled. This has been paid for by Bridlington Tourism Association.