On Mon, 13 Oct 2003 12:52:42 +0000, Jeff Morris wrote:

My Father-in-law (who I'm visiting now) beat the odds by surviving both
PQ17 (4 ships returned out of 36) and PQ18/QP18 (where roughly half
survived). In PQ17 his ship, the Exford, hid in an ice field after the
convoy was ordered dispersed. The bow was crushed by an iceberg, but they
managed to bring the ship back to Iceland for repairs.

At the end of the war, he has on board the tanker Oklahoma when it was
topedoed - they spend 17 days in a liferaft, sailing about 1000 miles to
Curacao.

-jeff

I never really realized how dangerous the merchant marine was during WWII
until I read that merchant mariners suffered a higher percentage of deaths
than any of the other US services. They provided a truly heroic service.