John,

Thanks for the replies, interesting webpage you found. It was definitley a night of confusion for all concerned. I have put this brief account of what happened to all the men from PETREL, LAPWING and CORTES on this night.

CORTES is hit first, followed shortly by PETREL. On a raft from the PETREL are nine men including Captain Klemp. The remaining men are in the water, which there should be at least seventeen. Mixed up with the PETREL survivors there are at least three men from the CORTES.
Lifeboat from LAPWING is manned by six men. It takes twenty men out of the water, seventeen Petrel and three Cortes and takes them back to the LAPWING .
The lifeboat returns to the raft and picks up those nine men.
The LAPWING is now hit, of its crew onboard at the time of the explosion only three survive, one picked up in the water and two that make it to the corvette’s boat.
The three CORTES men make it off the LAPWING, one picked up in the water and two that make it to the corvette’s boat.
Of the seventeen Petrel men that boarded the LAPWING only one survives, he makes it to the corvette boat.

A pretty terrible night, then another two weeks in the lifeboat for the survivors!!

Regards,

Mark