Twice Sunk (part 2 of 2)

Heroes Remember

Twice Sunk (part 2 of 2)

Transcript

We were burning and the ship was full of blood and dead bodies everywhere. Interviewer: Did you consider jumping into the sea for any reason? Not me, but the second mate he came up and, well I was there trying to lower the lifeboat but I was alone doing it. And he said that, "I'm jumping overboard." and I said, "Are you crazy?" I said, "We're both bleeding like pigs and there's lots of sharks in there." So I, well he said, "I'm jumping!" And his leg was pretty well shot off, it was just hanging there. So he jumped and why he did that I can't understand because... but believe it or not, a year later I met him, he was still alive, been picked up by another lifeboat. I didn't know that. Interviewer: Almost a miracle. Yes. Then I started to lower the lifeboat and tried to get someone to help me. There wasn't a single soul who could do anything. They were just like statues, they were petrified. I couldn't hear, because of the explosion we were totally deaf, you know. So I finally got one and I got him to take a tactile and he got so nervous that he dropped it and I tried to cut mine, which jammed in the, in the tactile. So I cut it down and the boat went right down, with seven men in it, but it raised itself up, so it was okay. I picked them up later. I got the other lifeboat out pretty well alone. When I got the boats out, then all of a sudden people came from everywhere, but none to help me get the boats out, not a single soul. And the worst of all, when we got the lifeboat down loaded with people, I looked down to the port side and there was another destroyer with the guns aiming right at us. He was there to sink us, the first one just to disable us. And we were right in the, in the line, where he was going to fire, because he was going to fire at the engineroom naturally and we were, the lifeboats were right outside of there. I was in the back, you know with the steering right there and they had, my friend that was together earlier sinking, he was laying top of me, he was so bloody... piece of meat, he was shot through everywhere you know. And I couldn'tt move and I got the guy attention to point, I pointed at the destroyer, told him you better get us, push us away from that before they shoot, otherwise, be a gone. So he realized the situation and got an oar out and pushed us back so that we slid back behind and the same time they fired, just in front of the lifeboat and sunk the ship. When I came back there, then I found another lifeboat with three men in it, captain, and scratch, there wasn't a scratch on him, and two, the crew was Chinese and we couldn't very well, well I couldn't understand them very well. Anyway, we picked up the, the boat the captain was in, was sinking, it was full of water. So was ours, but mine was full of people too. Now we had to take them onboard, that's bad. And then the first one, I told you that went down, right down with the seven people onboard that one was floating nearby so (inaudible). That was the best lifeboat actually. So I got some of the crew onboard, that one to come back where I was, but they said that they want to be where I was, because I was the only one who saved their life and I flipped over, they refused to leave my boat. The only way I got them to go, was that I took a line between the two boats and we got some of my crew transferred to theirs and we sailed back to Java. It took five days. Interviewer: Five days! Did you have any water with you? Boat, it was full of salt because it was, the tanks were shot through. The boats were full of blood and water you know. Interviewer: So had no drinking water? Didn't have any drinking water. But we got the rain shower the third day and we, we collected quite a bit of water. That was the only time we had water. Interviewer: So how many days was it getting to Java? Five days to Java. Interviewer: Five days at sea! Then we had two days through the jungle before we got into civilization.

Description

Mr. Maro continues his story, recalling how a second destroyer came to finish off the Prominence, and how the crew survived to return to civilization.

Harold Maro

Mr. Maro was born in Norway in 1917, and had begun going to sea with his father at age 15. During the Second World War, Mr. Maro sailed with two Norwegian Merchant Navy ships; the Atesbull and Prominence, both of which were sunk. Mr. Maro and other crew members washed up on the beaches of Indonesia five days after the Prominence was sunk and were placed under Japanese supervision; however, they were not taken prisoner until Norway declared war the following year. Transferred from camp to camp over the course of 3 ½ years, Mr. Maro was interned in Chang, Singapore when he was liberated in 1945. As the war came to an end, Mr. Maro eventually returned to Norway, but was soon lured to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for work , moving with his wife. They both soon became Canadian citizens. Mr. Maro continued to sail until his retirement in 1976.

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