From the September 29, 2011, Mail Online (Bri) "A U-boat attack, sunken treasure about to be salvaged and one of the most awesome survival stories of the war" by Annabel Venning.
Richard Ayres had spent 13 days adrift in a rudderless lifeboat and had watched his mates die one by one. Then, his boat capsized in the surf and he was about to give up when he heard children on shore shouting, "Stick it, mister! Stick it, mister!!"
Barely conscious, Ayres made one last effort to drag himself ashore through the treacherous Cornish surf, then, he saw a rope. He wrapped it around himself and then was pulled ashore and was unconscious by the time he reached the beach. He was saved by children.
He was the only member of the 85 aboard the SS Gairsoppa to survive when it was sunk February 17, 1941.
Today, the wreck of the Gairsoppa is deeper than the Titanic, some three miles, 300 miles off the southwest coast of Ireland and what is of great interest now, it went down carrying 240 tons of silver.
More to Come. --GreGen
The USS North Carolina (BB-55) My all-time favorite warship. As an elementary school student in North Carolina, I donated nickels and dimes to save this ship back in the early sixties.
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