LONDON: Nineteen Norwegian sailors stood on the platform of one of Calcutta’s main stations barefoot and clad only in pyjamas. None of them had shaved for 36 days. All had lost between 30 and 45 pounds in weight. These men had sailed in an overcrowded lifeboat pitted with bullet holes 32,000 miles to a point on the Indian coast 150 miles south of Calcutta.

Their ship was first shelled by the raider and all but one of the lifeboats was destroyed. Twenty-two of 58 persons aboard the ship got away. Although the Netherlands and East Indies were the nearest land all the survivors declared they preferred death in the lifeboat to becoming Japanese prisoners and the ship’s master, Captain Edgar Waaler, accordingly decided to set course for Ceylon — about 2,400 nautical miles distant — which he hoped to reach in about 40 days.

Normal emergency rations for 16 days were drastically reduced but were supplemented on the seventh day by flying fish which constantly fell into the boat. The survivors swallowed them whole after biting their heads off. A fortuitous rainstorm solved the water problem but on the day when they had expected to sight Ceylon they found they had drifted off course. — Dawn Delhi

Published in Dawn, February 28th, 2019