WIRELESS LIFE SAVING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3189, 13 September 1917, Page 7

WIRELESS LIFE SAVING

"5.0.5." IN WAE TIME. For obvious reasons the intelligence concerning the torpedoing of transpbrts and other Government vessels is carefully "guarded," so long as the natnve thereof renders any possible information likely ; to be of use to tho enomy. It is for this : reason that many of the most interesting stories are somewhat belated in their appearance. For instance, it was only quite recently that the Press have been allowed to publish an account of thn adventures of Lieutenant S.Hall, an officer of tho Macclefield Territorial Battalion of the Cheshire Regiment, wherein he describes the torpedoing of tho troopr ; shiplvernia in'the Merilorranean Sea on New Year's Day, and the way in which the rescue of thoso on board was effected through the means of wireless telegraphy. Lieutenant Hall draws, a jraphio picture of the sudden interruption of an enjoyable game of deck quoits by a "telltale line of bubbles and foam coining directly towards us." The officer had the misfortune to form one of the party in a boat which was unsatisfactorily launched', and all of whoso occupants wero pitched headlong into the sea. As soon as he "camo to tho surface and got the water out of his eyes," he found that he was being swept rapidly past tho Ivernia; but was -ultimately pulled on to a raft, where for a few minutes ho suffered from violent sickness as a resnli of he salt water he had swallowed. The ' K.O.S. signals, which had been radiated from the transports's aerials, summoned to their assistance a number of trawlers which had passed them earlier in the mcrninir as well as various vessels of war. Captain Turner (late of the Lusitania) wns in command of the Tvernia, and managed to Keen his vessel nflont'fnr over three hours after she wns struck. The troops who had not been able to get away on the Koats or rafts and who crowded the decks of the stricken liner owed their safety to the good seamanshin displayed and the promptitude with which wireless had got into touch with the rescuers. After their more pressing needs had been served came tho turn of those upon the rafts, and Lieutenant Hall describes the heartfelt relief of himself and his companions at the conclusion' of their four hours of anxious sigil. He winds up his highly graphic and interesting narrative with the eloquent comment:—"No praise is too high .for the splendid work done by the officers and crows of the destroyers and trawlers both ill nickin<r up survivors and attending to them afterwards."