The Wilmington morning star., 1945-12-29
CREW OF VALM0RE.
TURNS UP ALIVE
Continued from Page One)

towlinc and come alongside the
Valmore to take off her crew. But
before the Dunworkin could come
about, the southeasterly gale blew
the boats apart and the Valmore,
without power, was helpless. Eight
hours later the DunWorkin was
beached at Wrightsville Beach
with her crew OF three safe.
The Valnore was buffeted by the
waves and winds which, Willis .<N
howled as high as 75-miles-p-.-
hour. Three times Christmas day
the Valmore's 12-foot keel hit Fry
ing Pan shoals and the last time
she sprung leak.
Times the sea was running 40
to 60 feet high" Willis said. land
it was raining and sleeting and the
gale was blowing so miles and more
an hour and it was SO thick there
wasn't any use to try to signal the
Oak Island Coast Guard station.
We couldn't even have seen so feet
away from US. We couldn't even
stay up on deck"
Finally" Willis continued,
when we hit the shoals that last
time I knew we couldn't stay
aboard the Valmore and We de-
cided to take our chances in the
12-foot dory we had aboard. There
wasn't any way to launch the dory.
though, so we just had to stay
aboard the Valmore and we de-
sank-she didn't break to pieces.
She was two hours sinking and we
floated off her in the dory as she
went under.
while we were waiting for the
Valmore to sink we fixed the dory
by putting food and water in her
and covering her with canvas SO
we could live in the freezing
weather and rain and wind. We
made drug to hold the dory in the
wind and stayed on her through
Tuesday night, the four Of US lying
on the bottom to act as ballast.
when daylight came Wednesday
morning we rugged sail. We must
have been about SO miles offshore.
With about a 35-mile-an-hour W, =
behind us we sailed all day Wed
nesday, about II hours, until,
through the darkness of Wednesday
night, we spotted the bouy off Top
sail Inlet.
1--WE went inside at Topsail, but
ii was so dark we couldn't make
our way so we turned about back to
sea and headed northerIy. We got
so cold Wednesday night that we
beached the dory about halfway
between Topsail Inlet and New Riv-
er Inlet.
eve found a vacant cottage on
the beach and went inside and
made ourselves dry and ate. We
stayed in the cottage until about
noon Thursday and then, because
there was no way to get word to
anybody and no way for us to get
in from the beach, we launched
the dory through the breakers and
sailed on to New River Inlet. We
stopped at the point OF beach to
dry our clothes again-we were
right cold-and then sailed on up
New River to Camp Lejeune where
we put ashore and were taken to
Morehead City"
That, In his own words, is
Paris Willis story of the three
and-a-half day struggle he and his
companions put up with the sea. No
dramatics in his narrative, told in
the picturesque brogue of the ma
tives OF North Cardinals banks.
But there were other items.
Did the men in the tiny boat
pray?
mot none too much" Willis
said. 'but all Of US prayed and
most of the time and / wouldn't
be surprised If that didn't help us
lot in getting back.
We're they afraid?
well, the two young boys-my
boy, ]. T., who'll be IS next August,
and Richard Willis, who's 17-they
did right much crying. You know,
they'd hadn't been out in stuff
like that much. But Hootie Walters
and I had too much to do to get
a chance to get scared much"
Willis said they had plenty of
food fruit juices and canned
vegetables-on the dory and plenty