he gave the order to abandon ship. With the ship remaining under fire from Admiral Scheer, the crew escaped in three lifeboats. Admiral Scheer then turned her attention to other ships of the rapidly scattering convoy. Re-boarding The lifeboats separated in the night, and the two lifeboats with the captain and twenty-five crew were picked up and taken to Newfoundland. The sixteen men in the other lifeboat, including Second Officer Arthur G. Hawkins and Chief Engineer Charles Pollard, drifted for 24 hours when they sighted a burning ship. To their surprise, they discovered that it was their own ship, San Demetrio. With few alternatives, the crew had to decide whether to risk death by exposure or to re-board and risk the fire. In the end they chose to remain in the lifeboat because the fire was too great and the weather too hazardous to attempt boarding, but after a second night in the boat and enduring a freezing North Atlantic winter gale, they regretted not re-boarding the tanker. At dawn the following day, 7 November 1940, the San Demetrio was about downwind so the crew set sail toward her and re-boarded. They fought the fire, repaired the port auxiliary boiler sufficiently to restart the ship's pumps and dynamos and repaired the auxiliary steering gear. No charts or navigational instruments had survived so the crew estimated a course from occasional glimpses of the sun. Her radio had not survived either. They managed to sail the tanker across the rest of the Atlantic, braving bad weather and U-boats. After seven days the San Demetrio reached waters off Ireland, from where they were escorted on to the mouth of the River Clyde, docking on 16 November 1940. They declined the offer of a tow from a tug because of the high cost. Despite the damage and fire, only 200 tons of San Demetrios highly volatile cargo had been lost. There was only one fatality, John Boyle, who had been injured jumping into the lifeboat after the original battle and gradually began to feel unwell. He was propped up in the engine room, to watch the gauges, but died of a haemorrhage after two days. He was posthumously awarded the King's Commendation for Brave Conduct. Since the crew had received no assistance from another vessel, in the ensuing case in the Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division of the High Court, they were able to