HMS Oxfordshire picked up HMS Dorsetshire's wounded from the beached hospital ship and made for Durban. 'It took three weeks,' Vernon remembered. HMS Oxfordshire broke down in the warm sea around Mombasa doing Vernon's injured hand no good. By the time they got to Durban the hand wass smelling and gangrenous. First opinions were that it must be amputated but Dr Wassing intervened and and, although inflexible, Vernon still has his hand- no doubt with the help of the new miracle drug Penicillin.

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HMS Enterprise took the survivors of HMS Dorsetshire on board and made for the ship beached on one of the islands that was being used as a hospital ship. A Petty Officer took a look at Vernon's leg and said he could see the end of a bullet sticking out. The PO sucked his teeth and muttered,'That will have to come out before it suppurates.' 'Get on with it,' Vernon told him and the PO took out a pen knife, heated it like John Wayne, and dug out the bullet. Vernon grimaced at the thought. They could do nothing about his hand, however, and that had to wait for another pick up.

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