SINKING, OF A TRANSPORT

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3114, 19 June 1917, Page 5

SINKING, OF A TRANSPORT

NUESES' HEROIC CONDUCT.

Melbourne, Juno 11. - Additional stories of the scenes at the einking- of the British transport Transylvania, which was torpedoed In the Mediterranean on May i with, the loss of 412 soldiers and sailors, havo been published. One of tho survivors narrates the harrowing experience of tho nurses in the first boat away from the ship. :.\Yith about 50 or 60 persons the boat was being lowered, when it was discovered that there was no crew. Three soldiers Jiud two sailors were then put into the 'boat, and eventually after some difficulty n got clear of tho ship. In tho heavy sea, however, the almost inexperienced crew found it impossible to make the Shore, three miles distant. The boat shipped.seas continually and also leaked liadly. The narrator of the story says the nurses in the boat were the bravest women, he has ever seen—thev never ■whimpered, and they even helped at the oars. The boat gradually filled. ! Tiie occupants of this boat saw a destroyer go alongside the Transylvania. J. no submarines second torpedo missed the destroyer, but'it settled the fate of : Ihe Transylvania. Those in the boat saw ■men on board tho transport climb to the Highest point of the ship and drop over"oardas tho liner plunged under. The sinking of tho; ship sent out a grent wave which swamped the nurses' boat. vH o/cipants clung to tho submerged boat for five hours wlien a destroyer Picked them up in "an exhausted state.