Cited in Practical Christianity, October-December 1975 published by the Officers’ Christian Union, now the Armed Forces’ Christian Union.
On a grey June day in 1941, when the submarine war was at its height, the British troopship Anselm, packed with Air Force men, slipped its moorings in Liverpool and set off across the Atlantic with its destination Ghana. For wartime security, the ship should have been sailing with a convoy that had left 24 hours earlier, but engine trouble forced it to return, so that next day it set out alone.
Cecil Pugh was the Chaplain. A man of prayer, he had learned to listen to God for His daily direction. When war came, he left the security of a suburban church in North London to minister to the flood of recruits who were rushing to join the Air Force. He believed that, whatever the outcome of the war, men who put their trust in Christ and were re-made by Him, and then listened to God and the Bible, would be needed to rebuild the world and create peace and to tell the fact that Christ can change us and remake us to serve Him.
At 5am on 5 July 1941, the Anselm was found by a submarine. Hit by two torpedoes amidships, she began to sink immediately. There was a panic on board and utter confusion in the early morning darkness. Unskilled hands tried to launch the lifeboats, so that some stuck on the davits, and others landed upside down in the water.
Cecil Pugh, who had been in the sick bay, came up in his dressing gown and ‘seemed to be everywhere at once.’ Because he was not thinking of himself, his presence calmed the panic. The rest of the lifeboats were lowered safely, but there were still many without a place. Cecil went round the ship encouraging men to jump to safety. One man, hesitating on the deck, felt Cyril’s hand on his shoulder and his voice in his ear, “Go with God”. He jumped – and lived to tell the tale.
Finally, Pugh heard that there were some men trapped in the hold where the torpedoes had hit. The means of escape were blown away. They were wounded, so there was no hope for them. Pugh ordered a group of marines, who were standing round the open hatchway leading to the hold, to tie a rope round him and lower him in. The sergeant in charge refused.
“If you go down there, Bish, you’ll never get out”. “My faith in God,” Pugh insisted, “Is greater than my fear of death. I must be where these men are”.
The marines then did as he asked and lowered him into the hold, which was already awash with water. They watched as Pugh reached the wounded men and began to pray with them. When the inrushing water reached Pugh’s shoulders, the marines turned away and jumped themselves to safety.
The Anselm sank in 22 minutes. *Photo credit: https://www.pexels.com/@kindelmedia