HMS Li Wo: The Most Decorated Small Ship in the Navy by A. V. Sellwood

Author:A. V. Sellwood [Sellwood, A. V.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Amberley Publishing
Published: 2015-06-15T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

The Death of Thomas Wilkinson

Derbridge and Stanton, dazed by the blast of the salvoes which hurled up volcanoes of foam around the sinking ship, were staggering towards a suitable jumping-off point when they remembered Jack.

The wounded man was still lying in the cross-alley. They must go back. No help for it.

Jack looked up, his face twisted with pain. ‘Thanks,’ he muttered, then relapsed again into delirium.

They humped him between them to the end of the deck; and hesitated indecisively.

The man was wounded in the stomach and had become unconscious through the acrid fumes of the explosives.

So, how to move him, without killing him?

Stanton climbed down on to one of the depth-charge throwers, and Neal heaved the body into his arms.

Next, Stanton Slid down the ship’s side to the rubbing strake, and once again Jack was lowered into his grasp. From the strake it was only a short drop into the water.

‘Okay?’ he queried, as Neal joined him.

‘Okay.’

‘Then don’t waste time. Let’s go.’

Stanton, with Jack in tow, had progressed only a few yards when he realised that Neal was no longer with him. He turned, to see the New Zealander climbing back on to the ship. Well, what the hell? He trod water and shouted. Derbridge shouted back, but his explanation was drowned by the scream of a shell.

‘You all right?’ The words were almost bellowed in his ear. Leading Seaman Wilding had jumped into the water before them with the Malay W/T operator, a fellow who had stuck to his duty even when the wireless cabin had collapsed about him.

‘Can’t understand about Mr Derbridge,’ Stanton said. ‘He’s returned to the ship’

They rested, and looked back. Neal was no longer to be seen. Instead, to their surprise, two figures appeared on the fo’c’sle deck. Ginger Thompson and another rating.

‘But Neal and I checked to see if there were any survivors. So how the devil did we miss them?’ It took Stanton a few agitated moments to get the answer. And then he realised guiltily that they’d been sent below to get those spare tubes for the gun.

The two men looked pathetically small, tragically defenceless against the background of steam, smoke and flames which now framed the Li Wo. Yet they showed no sign of leaving. Instead, they just stood there as if waiting for orders, until Wilkinson himself appeared and was seen to order them over the side.

Thompson’s mate was swimming strongly when the next Jap salvo fell.

One of the shells exploded on top of him.

A mighty surge of water swept over the rest of the survivors, filling their ears and mouths and tossing their life-jacketed bodies like corks on its reeling crest. Stanton maintained his hold on Jack, but only with an effort.

And the latter, regaining consciousness, began to yell out.

Tom Wilkinson, now the only man alive in the shell-splintered sinking ship, staggered through the smoke to the near side of the bridge. The swimmers shouted at him to jump: but he took no notice.

He stared at the blazing

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