SS Gairsoppa: The Lifeboat-- Part 1

Everyone was suffering from the cold.  Ayres, 31, was the only man skilled at sailing a small boat and took command.  He sailed east using an oar as a rudder as the boat's had been lost. 

As far as food supply, they had some condensed milk and dry biscuits that could hardly be swallowed.  They are also very short on water.  Each man received half a pint during the day and a half pint at night.  The Lascars began drinking salt water and men began dying.

On the eighth day, the water ran out and more began dying.

Ayres had little sleep and only he and 18-year-old Robert Hampshire, the Gairsoppa's radio officer, and Norman Thomas, 20, a gunner, were strong enough to ma oars.

There were only seven survivors when one shouted, "Land!!"  It was the Lizard Lighthouse, on the southwest coast of Cornwall, some 300 miles from where the Gairsoppa had sunk.

Rescue?  --GreGen