H.M.Q. ship 18 was sinking sixty miles off the French coast as the
result of gun-fire, after destroying a German submarine.
After getting away we had a hurried call-over and found that a Cockney
fireman was missing. We hailed the ship which seemed about to take the
plunge any minute, and at last the stoker appeared, spotlessly clean
and dressed in "ducks."
He had to jump and swim for it. As we hauled him to our boat we asked
him why he had waited to clean himself.
"Well," he explained, "if I am going to hell there's no need to let the
blighter know I'm a stoker."--_Wm. C. Barnaby (late Chief Coxswain,
R.N.), 7 Seville Street, Knightsbridge, S.W.1._