The story of Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi in yesterday’s blog reminded me of another astonishing escape during the Great Storm of November 27, 1703 – probably the worst in recorded history to hit the United Kingdom.
Up to 8,000 people, many of them sailors in the Royal Navy, are thought to have drowned around Britain’s coasts. One naval ship destroyed was the Mary. The only member of its crew of 273 to survive was Thomas Atikins, who managed to cling to a floating piece of wreckage until a huge wave picked him up and flung him onto the deck of another man o’ war, the Stirling Castle.
As she was grounded, he was flung overboard, but fell into the only boat that managed to float free from the ship, and reached the shore unconscious and suffering from exposure, but alive. Of the Stirling Castle's crew of 349, just 70 survived.
For the full story of the Great Storm, see A Disastrous History of Britain.
Showing posts with label Tsutomu Yamaguchi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tsutomu Yamaguchi. Show all posts
Saturday, 9 January 2010
Friday, 8 January 2010
One of the great survivors
The only person officially recognised to have survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb explosions has died in Japan aged 93. Tsutomu Yamaguchi was from Nagasaki, and worked as a draughtsman, designing oil tankers for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
In the summer of 1945, he was seconded to a shipyard in Hiroshima – an arrangement that was due to end on August 6. That very morning, Enola Gay dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Mr Yamaguchi suffered severe burns to the upper half of his body, but managed to return to his hometown.
He was there three days later when the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. In later years, he became a determined campaigner for nuclear disarmament and addressed the United Nations.
A uranium atomic bomb was used against Hiroshima, and it exploded nearly 1,900 feet above the city. In the immediate aftermath, about 90,000 people died, while in the years that followed, the effects of burns, injuries and radiation carried off perhaps another 50,000. Against Nagasaki, a more powerful plutonium bomb was used, but the city had better air raid precautions, and the total death toll was around 75,000.
In the summer of 1945, he was seconded to a shipyard in Hiroshima – an arrangement that was due to end on August 6. That very morning, Enola Gay dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. Mr Yamaguchi suffered severe burns to the upper half of his body, but managed to return to his hometown.
He was there three days later when the second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. In later years, he became a determined campaigner for nuclear disarmament and addressed the United Nations.
A uranium atomic bomb was used against Hiroshima, and it exploded nearly 1,900 feet above the city. In the immediate aftermath, about 90,000 people died, while in the years that followed, the effects of burns, injuries and radiation carried off perhaps another 50,000. Against Nagasaki, a more powerful plutonium bomb was used, but the city had better air raid precautions, and the total death toll was around 75,000.
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