I have received a collection of documents from Mr. Christophe Urbain Vaes regarding his Grandfather Mr.Albert Hubert. This picture of Captain Hubert is from the cover of a Belgian economics magazine published in 1977.
Mr.Hubert was born in 1910 and worked with Compagnie Maritime Belge until his retirement in 1980. He died in 1994. Mr. Vaes has memories of Albert reminiscing about his experiences of the war and the tragedy of the Gandia.
In 1967 Mr. Henrique Rodrigues de Oliveira, who was the radio operator on board the Portuguese trawler the Jao Corte Real at the time of the disaster, offered Mr.Hubert the binoculars which he had used when he spotted lifeboat number 4.
He also sent a diagram describing the four phases of the rescue. The phases are: “1. The moment I saw the lifeboat (baleeira), 2. Distance travelled to the lifeboat, then the decision of the Captain to stop getting nearer because he thought the lifeboat was a wreck, 3. The point in which I saw arms waving for help, 4. Captain starts lifesaving procedures”
The following two pictures show Mr.Hubert preparing to give a speech on board a CMB vessel, and on the gangway of another vessel (the Gandia)?
S.S Gandia 