When I was at sea in the mid 1960s (about 20 years after the end of WWII) we had an AB in his 40s who was the grumpiest bastard ever, got on with no one, had a drinking problem etc. We were weather-bound in Rotterdam (westerly gale made it impossible to get out of Hook Of Holland) We had nothing to do but wait for 3 days so we sat in the Messroom and drank beer. We got him drunk and he told us his story. In early March of 1943 he was on a Liberty ship loaded with ammo in a convoy 300 miles east of Cape Hatteras when they were torpedoed, he was on deck on his way to the bridge so he went straight overside. there were 4 survivors in a Carly float in the North Atlantic in March,after a few hours a black shaped loomed up out of the Dark, a Tanker had seen their lifejacket lights and dropped a scrambling net for them, 12 hours later the Tanker was torpedoed with only 3 survivors, He was one of them, one of 4 then 1 of 3, Thats what I call LUCKY!!!