TRANSPORT TORPEDOED

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2597, 20 October 1915, Page 4

TRANSPORT TORPEDOED

DESCRIBED IN A LETTER. IJy Telegraph.—Press Association. Duneain, October 19. Mr. Lewin, Town Clerk, has received a letter from his sou, a member of the sth lleinforcemonts, who states that a- transport containing Australian, and New Zealand troops was torpedoed. The writer states that the total casualties were 51 Australians and tkpee New Z'ealanders, including a. Dunedin boy. The troopship was attacked on the way from Alexandria to Anzac, and the torpedoing took place at 10 a.m. Mr. Lowin'3 son was. rescued by a French destroyer. Tho troopship was not actually sunk, and was able to proceed to port tinder her own steam.

In the course of the letter the writer says: "The torpedo blew the middle of !he apartment where bunks had been fitted all round tho hold. Tho explosion blew the hatches and steps leading from the hold clean off, and a number of men were caught down below. A chain happened to bo hanging down from the dcck above, and the men climbed up somehow or other. Everything 'was very orderly on deck so far as the sddiers wero concerned, but most of the men in our boat were thrown into the sea, as one of tile crew lowered the boat with a rush, whilo the other held on." Lewin swam away aiul got into another boat, and after picking up five or six men they, mado for an island which appeared about ten miles off. Boats from tho cruisers and destroyers commenced to arrive about an hour and a half after tho transport was torpedoed. Lewin's boat was picked up by a Trench dosti'oyev about 3.30 p.m. Three New Zealanders belonging to the New Zealand Headquartors Staff and about 51 Australians, wero lost. The first torpedo missed the engineroom and the second missed the vessel altogether. The torpedoing is fiipposed to have happened about September .3.