The tanker was the S/S Edenfield, and my mother, sister, and I, were aboard her at the time. It was late July, 1948, and the three of us were on our way from Aruba to Glasgow, Scotland, on this ocean-going ship. We had departed Aruba the previous evening, heading toward the Mona Strait, between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. Upon awakening early the next morning, and rushing out on deck to survey our new surroundings, my sister and I were very surprised to find the coastline of Aruba, and the Esso refinery looming ahead, and our course appeared to be "full-speed" toward it.

What had transpired was this:

In the very early morning, northeast of Aruba, the "Edenfield" had almost run down a lifeboat containing six survivors from a capsized schooner. The schooner had been carrying a load of bananas from Trinidad, to St. Vincent. A storm had come up and sunk the schooner, but the occupants had managed to save themselves by taking to their lifeboat, which contained very little food and water.

For two weeks they drifted halfway across the Caribbean Sea, until they were sighted by our tanker, and rescued that morning.

One man on the lifeboat had died the day before the rescue. Upon considering the condition the survivors were in, our captain turned back to Aruba, rather than conti nuing on to Puerto Rico or the Dominican Republic. These peoples' clothes were in shreds, and even though their skin was very dark, they were terribly sunburned, and also were starving and dehydrated. Five men and one woman were brought barely alive on board the "Edenfield".

Mom gave some of her clothes to the woman, and our crew got enough clothes together for the men.

The tug, "Colorado Point" met the "Edenfield" just outside the Aruba harbor, where our crew literally carried the rescued people, who were so weak, across a plank to the tug. One of the men died in the hospital the next day. The rest of the survivors eventually recovered, and were returned to their homes.

Directly after the transfer, we left Aruba waters again, and made it to Scotland without further ado--a very long trip, back then.

The picture on the left, at the bottom of page 1, of the Aruba Esso News, accompanying the article, shows us at the railing above the gangplank--Mom, (Selma Armstrong), in the corner with a camera around her neck, to the left of her is my head, and my sister, Beverly, is standing next to Mom.

Sonya Armstrong Brittingham '53