Daniel Lionel Hanington ( Royal Canadian Navy officer ) Daniel Lionel Hanington , DSC , CD ( July 10 , 1921 – January 6 , 1999 ) was a Canadian Rear Admiral . In 1942 , while serving on the HMCS " Wetaskiwin " , he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross . His medal citation was " For meritorious services before the enemy . " What follows is his obituary as published in the " National Post " . " Rear Admiral Daniel Lionel Hanington , who survived a torpedo attack by a German U - boat during the Battle of the Atlantic , and received the Distinguished Service Cross , has died aged 77 . " Like many young men of his generation , Mr . Hanington entered the armed forces immediately after completing secondary studies at Rothesay Collegiate School , in New Brunswick . " In June , 1940 , he finished school ; by the fall , Midshipman Hanington was at sea in HMS " Rajputana " , an old ocean liner dragooned into convoy escort duty ; and in the early morning of Sunday , April 13 , 1941 , Rajputana was torpedoed and sunk . " ' All of a sudden , there was a phenomenal crash on the port side . The ship , and everything in her , stopped dead , and she listed about 10 degrees , ' Mr . Hanington wrote in his unpublished memoirs . After sighting the U - boat ' s periscope , and shooting at it unsuccessfully , the submarine fired a second torpedo . Standing on top of a magazine with 20 tons of ammunition , Mr . Hanington was scared . ' If they ever salvage the Raj , I guarantee that they will find my handprints on the rail around that magazine hatch . ' " Forty - two of the crew died ; the survivors escaped in lifeboats . ' We turned the boats in the general direction of Iceland , and started rowing . The weather was rapidly deteriorating ; it wasn ' t so bad for us who were rowing , but the injured who had been picked out of the water were rapidly freezing solid and we had to give them much of our warm clothing . ' Eventually rescued , Mr . Hanington ' s good humour and self - depreciating wit - ' he never took himself too seriously , ' Brian , his son , said — were clear in the cable he sent home from Reykjavik : ' Sunk , saturated , saved . Love Dan . ' " ' Anyway , the whole experience taught me three things — to inhale cigarettes , to enjoy brandy , and that the 13th , on which I was a survivor , is my lucky day . A final note , about nerves — the day before the sinking I weighed 197 pounds , the day after - 168 ! I had shivered off 29 pounds in about 20 hours . It stayed off for a long while , but I can ' t really recommend periodic sinking as a way to lose weight , ' he wrote . " He soon returned to sea duty , serving on a series of corvettes and destroyers , slowly being promoted , and developing a celebrated talent for navigation . " In 1942 , serving on HMCS Wetaskiwin as Group Navigator , he was involved in the sinking of U - 588 . ' I was able to figure out where the U - boat was when we lost contact with him . Partially , because of this , he was sunk . The Canadian Navy , which was 92 % made up of ignoramuses like me , hadn ' t been having a great deal of practical success , so there was high excitement and medals all round . Which is how I came by the Distinguished Service Cross . ' " He said the rest of his career was not as exciting . But it was full of honour and promotions , as he became steadily more expert in navigation , and in the theory and practice of escorting convoys . He served on an aircraft carrier , was hydrographer on HMCS " Swansea " ' s Arctic cruise in 1949 , did early work with military computers , was part of a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology planning the air defence of North America , held commands afloat and ashore , and ended his professional career as Deputy Chief of Staff ( Support ) for NATO ' s naval command . " He later taught at a U . S . Navy school , wrote a manual for the U . S . Navy , worked on " Trident " , a Canadian naval newspaper in Halifax , and retired to Victoria in 1989 , where he was buried Monday among naval officers and admirers from virtually every province , as well as Hawaii and Washington . " Rear Admiral Hanington was born in London , although both his parents were from New Brunswick . He moved to Trinidad , where his father managed The Guardian newspaper , and was sent to live with relatives in New Brunswick upon his father ' s death . He married his wife , Margot , during the war , and raised two daughters and two sons . " In his own words , ' I am not one of your forceful Haningtons , I am one of your stubborn Haningtons . I have brains enough , but have concentrated on my own field , the navy , to the detriment of a broader education . I try to make myself look as good as possible even when I am clearly wrong , so I say that I am kind , and I have tried to be a good father and grandfather . And husband , come to that . I have been fortunate beyond my deserts . ' "