biscuits, chocolate, Horlicks tablets, Bovril pemmican, of water and of massage oil for use against exposure. There was also a sail, which they rigged as a makeshift shelter. After three days of rough weather the sea calmed and the raft drifted. The men's health deteriorated, but the ration cans had keys to open them, and from one of these White improvised a fishing hook. He untwisted the fibres of a rope and made them into a fishing line. With this they caught about 50 fish, which they ate raw. This gave the survivors both protein and nutritious fish oil, which improved their health and did much to keep them alive. On 9 May a Consolidated PBY Catalina flying boat of US Navy Patrol Squadron 63 (VP-63) was on anti-submarine patrol when its crew sighted the raft about 250 miles off Bermuda. The plane circled overhead, touched down on the sea nearby and launched an inflatable boat, in which aircraft navigator Lieutenant Knox came over to the Carley float. The four survivors greeted Knox by offering him a fresh fish they had just caught. The Catalina flew the four to Bermuda where they were admitted to a US Navy mobile hospital. All had developed saltwater sores but considering they had been adrift for 38 days they were in relatively good health. A/B White had lost only in weight in 38 days adrift, and on 28 May was passed medically fit to return to duty. The Catalina's crew, lieutenants Kaufmann, Rex Knorr and Elliott, received US Navy commendations for the rescue. In August 1944 Best, Burns, Nunn and White were all awarded the BEM for displaying "outstanding qualities of courage, fortitude and endurance which enabled them to survive". The award came too late for Ronald Nunn, who had been killed on 10 June 1944 when the coaster , carrying ammunition and fuel oil for the invasion of Normandy, was sunk in the English Channel off the Isle of Wight. On 1 April 1943, the day before U-129 attacked Melbourne Star, an eastbound ship purporting to be the Portuguese four-masted cargo steamer had passed the cargo ship in mid-Atlantic. The Admiralty enquiry into the loss of Melbourne Star established that no Portuguese ship answering that description had been anywhere near that part of the Atlantic that day. It was therefore suspected that this was a Kriegsmarine merchant raider disguised as a neutral Portuguese