SS Harrington dispatched two lifeboats, which stayed together until the following afternoon, when they were separated by severe weather conditions. The captain of the sunken ship was in Dad's life boat but was in poor condition, and Dad was asked to take charge. One rating managed to drink the liquid from the compass. At the time of the sinking Dad was off duty and was wearing carpet slippers, and so had to keep his feet out of the icy cold water that was swirling around the bottom of the life boat. The sea would have been very cold at these latitudes.  After 11 days in an open life boat they were picked up by HMS Winchelsea which was on her way to St Johns, Newfoundland.  The HMS Winchelsea was going to re-fuel as she had missed her convoy, so it was by pure luck she had sighted the lifeboat on her journey.

The second lifeboat was lost. Twenty-two of the crew and two gunners had been lost at sea.  Twenty three survived in Dad's lifeboat.

Having carpet slippers turned out in the end to be good luck, since every one else in the boat, having boots, allowed their feet to remain in the water. After rescue they were all found to be suffering from frostbite.   The survivors were in a large hospital ward, and each person had a cage over their feet to keep the weight of the bedding off their feet.  Dad says that on one day a surgeon came along and lifted the bedding on each patient to inspect their feet.  He then went though the whole ward and removed toes from many of the patients, with Dad being one of the lucky exceptions.  However, he suffered for many years with poor feet, he was pleased to have kept his toes. 

Eventually, after a long stay in a Canadian hospital he was returned to England.  (The good news for my brother and I was that he came home with a kitbag of sweets.).