Two Swindon sisters were among those saved when the Dutch liner the Simon Bolivar sank in the North Sea, 16 miles off Harwich.

Pamela, and Erica Cresswell aged 12 and 10, were on their way to join their parents in Trinidad when the ship hit two mines, killing 140 of the 400 passengers and crew on board.

“A wave of horror has swept the world at the news of the sinking of the Simon Bolivar,” the Advertiser reported. “Survivor’s stories revealed nightmare scenes aboard the vessel, with shrieking women and children plunged into a sea of thick oil.”

Recovering with their aunt and uncle, Mr and Mrs V L Vernon at 21 Okus Road, the girls told how they managed to get into a lifeboat but it was overcrowded and also in danger of sinking. Travelling with them, Mr and Mrs Short, the girls’ guardians, who were by that time in the water, called to the sisters to jump into the sea. After an hour and a half the group was picked up by a lifeboat and transferred to a trawler.

“In spite of the terrible ordeal through which they passed they never at any time displayed any fear,” the report continued.

Another Swindon visitor, Capt AV Grace, of the British Guiana Police, was also rescued but fears for his wife’s safety mounted. Capt Grace had spent an extended holiday with his son, staying at Alvescot Road, Swindon. The couple had intended returning to British Guiana by air “but as his wife suffers from severe nervous trouble, this was considered to be inadvisable.

The two refused to be parted, and so decided upon the ill fated sea voyage.”