An interesting update:
I have been looking again through my dad's papers, and I came across an extraordinary hand-written letter from Tommy Inglis. (Tommy, Jackie Peake, George Emerson and my dad were pals aboard Waterfly, although George and my dad had moved on before Waterfly was sunk.)
Tommy was writing from home to George, the letter dated Sept 28th 1942 - eleven days after the sinking. The three pages describe the sinking and its aftermath. He states that the first bomb gave her a 45 degree list, the second bomb hit the magazine (blowing him unconscious into the water) and she sank in under two minutes. Jackie told him they had been in the water for forty minutes before they were picked up, but Tommy only remembers 'about five minutes of it'. After giving thanks for his own rescue by Jackie, Tommy lists the survivors; eight by his reckoning. He names Robson, Biggins, Peake, Fells, Lofty, Sparks, himself and 'good old Willie Clarke'. He also reports that CO Hawes and Swansbury were picked up but 'medical help was too late' and they died.
I assume George passed this letter to my dad when they met in the 1980s, shortly before George's death. It's a poignant and moving account of Tommy's feelings immediately after the sinking of Waterfly.