Mick Rudkins - The sinking of the Limerick

Transcript

We lost the last ship on the convoy, a New Zealand ship, the Limerick. So we picked up the submarine, but they were cunning. Once they sunk a ship, the skipper of that ship would try to go under the survivors so you wouldn't drop depth charges and kill the whole crew of the survivors. Some skippers done it, in England they...to get the ship because they thought, well, if you leave it go, it lives to sink another ship. It was a hard thing but we didn't do it. We lost it and the ship took about two hours to sink, the Limerick, and all the jokers are floating in the water.

They've got their life belts on and a little light they had on their life belt and they all had whistles they used to blow them to let you know, of course, you're in the dead dark of night. We picked them up and the other ships went ahead with the other corvettes and we rushed into Brisbane, come in under the Storey Bridge.

They must have sent a signal though and the Red Cross were there waiting for all the men, all the survivors and we dropped them off there and they took over from there and took them clothing and looked after them and then we went out speeding ahead and caught up with the convoy again.

https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/sound/unseen-enemy-survivors-of-the-limerick