Last Gesture

Somewhere on the high seas two U-boats caught an Allied merchant vessel and surfaced to shell it. A high-explosive burst hit squarely on the bridge. Captain Arthur William Folster, of Durban, South Africa, collapsed on his deck, riddled with shell fragments, his right arm and left leg torn off.

Knowing himself beyond medical aid, Captain Folster called for a slug of brandy, then ordered his men to abandon ship. As the boats pulled away and the ship settled in the water, ablaze from end to end, the survivors heard a weird sound. The skipper had propped himself up, got hold of the whistle lanyard with his good arm and sent his last salute -dot-dot-dot-dash -the Morse code V for Victory.

This episode became known when his wife went to court to have her sea-captain husband legally declared "missing and presumed dead."

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