which had been sunk in November 1942. Half of Melbourne Stars passengers and several of her crew were from Australia or New Zealand, including five junior Royal Australian Navy officers, a RAAF wing commander and a young Roman Catholic priest. Two of Melbourne Stars crew and two of her passengers were from the Republic of Ireland. One passenger was a young woman from Dundee, Scotland, travelling with her two sons aged eight and four. Melbourne Star started her Atlantic crossing from Liverpool with Convoy ON 175, which was bound for New York. En route she detached from the convoy to head for Panama. About 0300 hrs on 2 April Melbourne Star was in mid-Atlantic in heavy weather about 480 miles south-east of Bermuda when the German Type IXC submarine hit her with two or three torpedoes, one of which detonated in her boiler room. Part of her cargo detonated, destroying three-quarters of the ship instantly and sinking her within two minutes. There was no chance to transmit a distress signal, and if any of her four lifeboats survived the explosion there was no chance of anyone launching them. But the ship also carried Carley floats, which were either thrown into the sea by the explosion or floated clear as the remains of the ship sank. Eleven people from the ship managed to find and board three of the floats: seven people in one, three crewmen in another and an engine room greaser, William Best, alone in a third. At daybreak U-129 approached the floats. The Germans asked the survivors for the name of their ship and what its destination and cargo were. From one of the floats able seaman Leonard White replied, giving the ship's true name but claiming she was bound for Panama with "general supplies". U-129 then left them to fend for themselves. A/B White shared a float with ordinary seaman Ronald Nunn and engine room greaser William Burns. At daybreak they sighted William Best alone in his float and the two paddled toward each other. White, Nunn and Burns transferred to Best's float. They sighted the float with seven occupants but could not reach it. It was never seen again. A/B White took charge of the party of four survivors and "was responsible for the intelligent planning of the rations and the morale of his shipmates which was excellent at all times". Their float was stocked with