Survivors on a life raft
The lifeboats failed to find one of the life rafts, which was crowded with 16 men. One of them, oiler Cornelis Van Der Slot, sighted an empty raft and swam to it. Over the next two hours, three other men from the crowded raft joined him.[7]
One Armed Guard, Basil Izzi, survived in the water by clinging to floating wreckage. Whenever he found a piece of wreckage bigger than the one he was clinging to, he switched to it. After two nights and a day he saw the raft with four occupants, swam to it, and joined them.[7] The occupant who pulled him from the water was Ensign Maddox.[9]
The raft was rectangular, 8 by.[11] It was provisioned with 10 usgal of water, nine cans of condensed milk, 2 lb of chocolate, and two dozen hardtack biscuits. The men found the hardtack made them thirsty, so they gave most of them to seabirds that settled on the raft.[9] After 16[10] or 19 days the food ran out, and after 24 days the drinking water ran out. Three days later it rained hard, so the men caught rainwater by making a canvas trough.[11]
After 20 days the men saw a ship. They burned flares and waved their shirts at the ship, but it did not respond. On the afternoon of the next day they saw another ship. The men burned three of their four remaining flares, and waved their shirts, but the ship did not respond. About three weeks later they saw another ship, but it was far away, and they did not try to signal to it.[10]
The raft's provisions included a first aid kit. The men dismantled its scissors, fixed one of the scissor blades to the end of an iron rod to make a spear, and had some success spearfishing.[11]
The raft had a 12 ft rope. The men made it into a bowline, and dipped their hands and feet in the water to attract sharks. Eventually they lassoed a 4 ft shark, drawing the bowline tight on its tail. They pulled it aboard the raft, tried to kill it by beating it to death, and then four men held the shark while the fifth knifed it.[11] They ate its heart, liver and some of its meat. They tried storing some of its meat in a container, but by the next day it was inedible, so they threw the remains overboard.[10]
The men caught and ate seabirds that alighted on the raft. On Thanksgiving Day, which that year was 26 November, a large bird alighted on the sea nearby. One of the Dutch survivors, Nicolaas Hoogendam, jumped into the sea and caught the bird, which the men then ate.[10]
After 30 days, it was Izzi's 20th birthday. Eight small fish took refuge under the raft, where the men caught them through the cracks and ate them whole.[9][10] After 42 days, it was Maddox' 30th birthday.[9]
After 60 days adrift, another Armed Guard on the raft, George Beezley, fell ill. He complained of stomach pains, went blind in one eye, then deaf in one ear, and after 66 days he died. Ensign Maddox, who in civilian life was a lecturer at Purdue University, conducted his burial at sea.[9] After 69 days, they ran out of water again.[11] After 73 days, Maddox also died. The three survivors buried him, saying prayers that he had taught them.[9]
After 82 days, the three survivors saw an aircraft, but it went away without indicating its crew had seen them. On the morning of the 83rd day, 24 January 1943, they saw an aircraft again, and about an hour later a convoy appeared.[9] It was Convoy TB-3 from Trinidad to Brazil.[6] Izzi and Hoogendam held van der Slot's legs to help him stand up and wave to the nearest escort.[9]
A lookout on one of the escorts, the submarine chaser USS PC-576, sighted the raft. PC-576 rescued the three surviving occupants: Van Der Slot, Izzi, and a seaman, Nicolaas Hoogendam. They were very malnourished, so at first they were fed only canned peaches. Izzi's weight had decreased from 145 lb to 85 lb. They were landed at Recife in Pernambuco, where they were hospitalized for six weeks. From there they were flown via Miami to Washington, whence they were taken to Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, from which they were eventually discharged.[10]
