ACTIVITY: Swimming CASE: GSAF 1962.09.13 DATE: Thursday September 13, 1962 LOCATION: The incident took place in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa. NAME: John MacIver DESCRIPTION: He was a 29-year-old male from Stornoway, Lewis, and a seaman from the Union Castle liner Stirling Castle. BACKGROUND MOON PHASE: Full Moon, September 14, 1962 NARRATIVE: The drama started with the cry “Man Overboard!” as the passenger liner Stirling Castle steamed north over the Equator. James Allen, a distressed British seaman who was being repatriated to Britain from South Africa, leapt into the sea and swam away from the ship. Two boats were lowered. In one of them was John MacIver, in the other was South African seaman Thomas Archibald, but Allen refused to be taken onboard. The liner’s master, Captain Robert Cambridge, ordered the officer in charge of the boat to put a man in the water and get a line on Allen. “From the bridge I saw MacIver strip off his shirt and boots and jump in,” he said. MacIver was a good swimmer, but not as good as Allen, and so Archibald jumped in the water and forced Allen alongside No.2 boat. Suddenly MacIver threw up his arms, the water around him became discolored with blood, and he screamed. Archibald left the side of No.2 boat and swam to MacIver who was two boat-lengths away. “I saw the dorsal fin of a shark and I ordered the crews to splash their oars to distract the shark,” said Second Officer Norman Curd. “We threw a heavy line to the men, Archibald caught it and we pulled them alongside.”

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Stirling Castle at Southampton in 1962

INJURY: Fatal. MacIver sustained multiple and gross lacerations of the right leg and left buttock. He was unconscious by the time he reached the ship. He died moments after being taken aboard the liner and was buried at sea. When the liner arrived in back Southampton, Allen was taken to a mental home on the outskirts of the city. SPECIES INVOLVED: Not identified SOURCES: Daily Express (London), Wellington Evening Post & Christchurch Star (New Zealand), September 22, 1962.

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The Glasgow Herald Saturday September 22, 1962, page 8

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Sir Nicholas Cayzer, chairman of the British and Commonwealth Shipping Company, presents a watch to Thomas Archibald in recognition of his heroic

attempt to rescue John MacIver.

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