Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 95 continued ... SS LADY HAWKINS continued ... SS Lady Hawkins had left Halifax, unescorted, and in the dead of night, on 16 January. She was hugging the relative safety of the American coast as far south as Cape Hatteras, N.C. before steaming for Bermuda. Just before 0200 (EST), two torpedoes slammed into her, destroying six of the lifeboats. Lady Hawkins sank in 20 minutes. The remaining three lifeboats were overloaded and many people struggled in the water before drowning. A few passengers and crew jumped into the darkAtlantic, some of them were picked up by the only lifeboat that got away safely. That one lifeboat was nine metres in length and certified to hold 63 people. Before the dawn came up it was carrying 76 survivors in danger of being swamped. Through the darkness, the voices of people calling for help could be heard. Chief Officer Percy Kelly, of Chester, NS, was in charge of the lifeboat and later reported he gave “the agonizing order to pull away…there was nothing else we could do. The cries of the people in the water rang in my ears for years.” But the ordeal of the survivors, some 210 kilometres from land, was not yet over. Water began slopping over the lifeboat’s sides and everyone had to take turns bailing continuously. With a limited amount of food and water on board, breakfast and supper consisted of half a biscuit and a dipper of water each. Lunch was a mouthful of condensed milk. “Every noon, before the milk, we bowed our heads and thanked God for our deliverance. We prayed for strength and courage. It was done simply and without emotion.” As they grew weaker some of the survivors died of conditions associated with hypothermia. Others, babbling incoherently from the psychological strain, also succumbed. “The burials from the small lifeboat, such a dot on the large expanse of water, were conducted with care and reverence. We said a prayer as each body was gently lowered over the side.” On the evening of the fifth day, severely weakened, the survivors bedded down for the night wondering “how much longer our ordeal would last.” The helmsman of the lifeboat sighted the U.S. Army troop ship USAT Coamo and signaled it with a flashlight. After initially mistaking the lifeboats for an enemy submarine, the Coamo altered its course and rescued the 71 survivors. USAT Coamo put the survivors ashore in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on January 28. Shortly after the ordeal, a group of survivors wrote to Kelly thanking him for “holding them together and providing such leadership.” (“Bermuda's History from 1939 World War II to 1951” by Keith Archibald Forbes.) Of the three lifeboats launched, only Chief Officer Percy Kelly's was found. Twenty-one Nova Scotians, three or whom were women, perished during the sinking of the Lady Hawkins. They were: Henry Benjamin Bush of West Dublin Carl Hastings Coolen of Hubbards James Albert Dunne of Halifax Chief Officer Percy Kelly
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