I was one of the survivors of the transport ship _Leasowe Castle_.
Just before she took her final plunge, I was standing on deck when an
empty boat was seen drifting near by. Our section officer called for
swimmers, and five or six men went overboard in a jiffy and brought the
boat alongside.
There was a bit of a scuffle to get over the rail and into the boat,
and one man jumped straight into her from a height of about thirty
feet. To our dismay he went clean through--it was a collapsible boat!
No sooner had this happened than a typical Cockney voice said: "Blimey,
he's got the anchor in his pocket, I'll bet yer!"--_G. P. Gregory (late
272 M.G. Company), 107 Tunkar Street, Greenwich._