Torpedoed

It was about 8.30 pm on the 5th of June 1944 and twenty one year old, 3rd Officer Ghansham Soni was the officer on watch, aboard the SS Helen Moller.She was a 5200 ton merchant ship, en route to Fremantle, Australia from Colombo and was about 500 kilometres south of Ceylon now known as Sri Lanka.

The german U Boat 183,patrolling the Indian Ocean, spotted the ship and then her Commander ,Fritz Schneewind, ordered the launch of a torpodeo .It struck amidships,breaking into the Helen Moller which took water and began to list ,destined for the deep,dark waters of the Ocean.She sank n twelve minutes.

The impact caught the crew unawares and there was commotion and chaos as the ship began to sink.The Captain F Paull, went around the ship and ordered abandonment.He was helped by the Chief Officer in trying to get the crew into the lifeboats also assisted by Petty Officer Eric Seviers. On the main deck ,Eric spotted G Soni,badly injured and unable to walk but still shouting out instructions to crew on how to lower the lifeboats. Eric Seivers realised that G Soni had fallen from the bridge to the deck almost three floor high was badly injured.His left leg was bloody! Eric helped him to get up and then picked up him up and carried him to the last lifeboats and also clambered on. 69 crew members survived but the Captain , presumably, chose to go down with the ship.

The U Boat surfaced and after giving a quick look at the destruction it dived.

It was later sunk on 23 April 1945, days before the German surrender by the American submarine SS 321 Besugo near Java.The morning saw two life board with its survivors braving the hot unrelenting June sun.The lufe boats dikn drifted apart and list sight of ibe another.The lifeboats had some medicines ,biscuits and a few cans of water.G Soni was in great pain. His knee was a mess of shattered bones and bloody. He was now in command of his lifeboat ! His second was Eric,who would administer small dosages of morphine to him and treat his wounds by the limited resources available.

They were spotted 6 days later by MV Empire Confidence and taken to Colombo.The other life boat drifted north and was spotted by the HMS Okapi who took on the survivors and deposited them in Aduu Atoll.G Soni was admitted to the hospital where he was cared for for about two months.

After his discharged and reported for duty.His knee joint now repaired to the best as available then and there in Colombo but left him with an almost unnoticeable limp for life.

Unable to rejoin active shipping immediately he was appointed as Lieutenant in the Royal Indian Navy VR.

He was awarded the Burma Cross later.

In 2011 my brother Anil, a mariner himself,traced the son of Eric Seivers and to our delight discovered that he still held letters of gratitude that G Soni had written and also a gold ring that he had sent Eric.

Ghansham Soni was my Father and we lost him in August 1993.


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