Grandfather Harold Cecil Lenan Brosnan Batten, born 1900 in Singapore: About 1941, my grandfather was working on a ship called Ban Han Leong. Prior to this, he had been working in the marine salvage industry, and previous to that, he worked for Singapore Dock Company. He was the Second Mate (tbc) on the ship. It was part of an auxiliary patrol when it suffered a bombing attack in Penang in 1941. It was repaired and in February 1942, there is a sailing record that it was carrying troops and civilians, in the company of the ship Sin Hik Lee. It sailed on 7 February and safely arrived at Tanjon Pirdk [sic?] where the troops and civilians disembarked. It set sail again two days later for an unknown destination, carrying AA guns to an Australian garrison on Timor. It is believed the vessel was bombed by the Japanese, not torpedoed, as it was passing through the Karimati Straits, off Pontianak Island. The photograph of the diorama confirms this. The bomb severely damaged the ship. It limped to a nearby island and was shipwrecked on the coral reef surrounding the island. His grandfather remembers the ship was alight, but he was knocked out and had a shrapnel wound in his leg. He was lying near the waterline. One end of the ship was below the water and the other end was out of the water. The Chinese crew abandoned ship leaving his grandfather behind, probably thinking he was dead. There is no record of any of the crew reaching the island. When his grandfather wakes up, he makes a shelter out of the tarpaulins. It's raining and this has helped to put out the fires. He collects rainwater for drinking. There is a cat that has also survived! He survives on the ship for a couple of days but is in a sorry state. He lights a beacon on the furthest point away from him - the highest point. The cat has been collecting flying fish and taking them to his grandfather. He cooks them and shares them with the cat. He prays to the Virgin Mary. He passes out. He wakes up in a canoe. He is being taken to the island by inhabitants. They ...