Twice Torpedoed A Merchant Seamans Voice From The Sea40,000 Merchant Marine volunteers lost their lives in the two World Wars 27 year old Colin Watt from Mangere was one. Torpedoed, taken prisoner on the Altmark, rescued, then fatally torpedoed off Long Island, New York, by a German U boat. But his rescued letters, snapshots, and journals survived, and piecing them together, Watts namesake and nephew, Colin Carruthers, tells his uncles hair raising war story.