Evening star., 1941-08-17
By MARIAN McGILL,


BY MARIAN McGILL.
1t was GAS pm. June 26. when
the S. S. Maasdam, Dutch ship.
carrying American nurses and
United States marines, was tor
pedoed. Ten days before she had
left Halifax in British convoy for a
port in England. Her position was
the first ship in the next to the
outside lane. This is considered a
good position for convoy travel. At
first I thought the hit was near the
middle of the ship on the port side,
later learned it was forward in the
No. 2 hold directly under the bridge.
1t did not come exactly without
warning. At 8 pm. was playing
ping-pong with the fourth officer in
the recreation room below in the
midship house. A call boy came in
and a quick Dutch conversation
took place.
Calmly the officer said to me, You
will have to excuse me. I must go
to the bridge. One of the ships has
been torpedoed. Go to your cabin
and put on your warmest clothes"
And then in tine fashion of Dutch
seamen added, Don't worry, believe
mel"
We went up the stairs and out on
deck. Visibility was still good. In
this subarctic region of 60 N. dark
ness came late
Plane Joins Ships.
A large Sunderland plane from
one of the British bases and sew
eral additional escort had Joined
us that day. 1t had made us all feel
a bit more secure. We now saw the
Sunderland flying in large, low cir
cleS in the area of the last ship
in the ninth lane. I could see black
smoke over the vessel. The ship
appeared to be afire and sinking. I
saw three of the escort Fastening
toward the spot. The regular ships
of the convoy were continuing as
though nothing had happened. This
was in accordance with orders as
for all ships of all convoys.
The officer accompanied me to my
cabin and went on to the bridge.
Inside my cabin I found my two
cabinmates. We dressed silently in
our warmest clothing, a procedure
which had been done many times
in the last four days. We had lost
our first ship by torpedo three days
before, which was seven days out of
Halifax. From then on we had
known constant warnings.
I put on two slips, two sweaters,
three blouses. a suit skirt and Jacket,
a short fur coat and changed to
pair of new shoes. piled my steam
er rug. my submarine bag" my
overshoes and my life jacket to-
gether on the desk in my cabin.
We had been told in the early days
at sea to prepare small bag to
take away in the lifeboat in case
we had to abandon ship. My bag
was a small red alligator overnight
case and every bit of space had been
used. 1 had cosmetics. toilet arti-
cles, my favorite pieces of costume
jewelry stockings, my address book,
a picture of my year-old nephew,
a wool beret and a few other treas
ured items.
Ship Gives Lurch.
I went to the back deck and
joined the major, the commander
of the 10 United States Marines
aboard, the advance group of the
unit which was bound for the
American Embassy in London.
With him was the housemother
who had sailing charge of the l6
nurses bound for the American
hospital IN Salisbury, England. We
stood there for just few minutes.
Suddenly the ship gave quick
lurch to the starboard side. This
was followed by trembling of the
entire ship and the loud blast of the
sirens. With an entirely different
expression on his face and looking
directly at me the major said,
We'll, I guess that's ours" The
noise of the engines ceased abruptly.
They had been stopped by the
engineroom crew. After torpedo
Ing the motion of the engines only
hastens sinking. Every person
throughout the ship knew we had
been torpedoed. We seemed all
of the same feeling, to get our life