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    "localId": "2661893",
    "label": "Martin, Ruth Marion",
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    "id": "2661893",
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    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Martin, Ruth Marion",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2661893",
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        "Records of the American National Red Cross",
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    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/2661893",
    "naId": 2661893,
    "coverageEndDate": {
        "day": 11,
        "logicalDate": "1955-04-11",
        "month": 4,
        "year": 1955
    },
    "coverageStartDate": {
        "day": 19,
        "logicalDate": "1935-03-19",
        "month": 3,
        "year": 1935
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{
    "seq": 67,
    "pageIndex": 0,
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    "ocrText": "M\nan\nPage 2\nthe bridge most of the time and of course it was his last opportunity to\nbe with us, or so he thought. That evening I met all of the fficers\nand became friendly with the Third Engineer whose name is Eugene\nI will give you his last name some other time. I think now it is best\nto withhold names. At any rate Eugene and I have become good friends and\nI feel very fortunate that we are, since hes has been so kind and pro-\ntective toward me.\nOn Monday evening the 23d of June about eleven P.M. several of us\nNI\nwere sitting in Eugene's cabin when the Chief Steward appeared with\nhis life jacket on and announced that one of the ships in our convoy had\nan\njust been torpedoed and sunk and we were ordered to put on our life\njackets and prepare to leave the ship 11 necessary. I cannot really\ntell you how I felt. I did remember everyting that had been told to us\nwhen we were ins tructed about life belts and etc. so I went immediately\nand did so, however it turned out that the dangeR passed and by daybreak\nwe all went to bed again, but from that time on there was very little\nrest to be had. Our convoy has consisted of about fifty ships, made up\nof freighters, tankers, auxillary cruisers, destroyers and other battle\nships known as Crovets. The destroyers detect the submarines and when they\ndo they signal and then start throwing depth bombs or depth charges as\nthey are usually called. We had much of that all day Tuesday, then on\nWednesday we had a quiet day. On Thursday afternoon late I was just\nthinking how peaceful everything had been when suddenly we had another\nwarning that a ship had been torpedoed. Later that evening another was\nsunk and I dressed nyself in a pair of pajama pants and both pairs of\nslacks, my Red Cross Jacket to my suit, my top coat, raincoat, beanie,\nand the mocassins I had bought in Halifax with two pair of socks, also\nwarm underwear, shirt and red sweater. I had prepared my small black\nbag with the white slip-over sweater, toothbrush, powder, cream, bath\ntowel, extra shirt, tie, warm gloves, scarf, hose garters and my papers\nof identification, passport, etc. About 9:45 p.ll. our time and 1:45\na.m. Greenwich time one of the girls and myself were just sitting in\nEugene's cabin, in fact had just been there about five minutes, I\nhad taken my coat and raincoat off, when crash, bans came the torpedo.\nThere was no doubt in my mind what had occurred and I ran to my cabin\nfor my life belt forgetting my coat, but Eugene had presence of mind\nand was right after me with it. He put it on for me, buttoned it up,\nput my life belt on and fastened it, when another explosion occurred.\nHe told me to hurry so I grabbed my bag and RAN. It seems that some\nof the doors were jammed in the explosion and what seemed an eternity\nfinally ended when one of the men kicked out a door, aft on the star-\nboard side and we went up a ladder instead of the proper way. When\nthe explosion came it seemed as though the whole ship was falling apart.\nThe boat deck was filled with pieces of iron and shrapnel. What had\ncaused the second explosion was the ship on our starboard side. It, too,\nwas torpedoed and being a ship loaded with ammunition, of course, made it\nallthe worse. As I was climbing the ladder I saw the ship blow up and\nsink. The ship just aft of us was also torpedoed. That was three ships\nat one time. We took to our life boats immediately. The motor bost\nhad been damaged in the explosion so we had to divide up. Eugene came\nin our boat and it turned out that we had the best boat. About twenty-\nfive went in our boat, five of the girls, four officers, and the rest\nm° crew. There was some difficulty in lowering the boat and believe me\nI was terrified. But fortunately it was not yet dark. I tell you² just\nI prayed to Gold to save us and I am so thankful to be alive I cannot\n9\nJ"
}