THE WARILDA CRIME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 286, 22 August 1918, Page 7

THE WARILDA CRIME

STORIES BY AUSTRALIAN SURVIVORS

THE MAN WHO COULDN'T WALK ("Sydney Sim" Correspondent.) London, August It. Sergeant A. Svensson, :i Melbourne printer, is convali'.scinjj in a London hospital after his lerrible experience in the sinking of (ho Al'nrilda. lie was shot in the chest ami abdomen at Yillers Breton, lieux on July i, and though the wounds aro healing he has been unablo to move from his bed since. Ho was carried aboard the Warilda, and placed on tho lower deck. Telling hid story of. the tragedy, ho said:—

"I was awakened by (ho roar of the , explosion. The other patients rushed upstairs, leaving two of us helpless in bed. Wo waited lor what seemed half an hour, but as tho rescuers did not arrive we. decided to try and escape. Wo got out , of. bed and tried to stand, but wo both fell on tho (loor. AVo crawled, to the stairway in tho darkness and dragged ourselves painfully towards the lon. "After many, stoppages to recover strength wo mounted 12 or 15 steps, when a ship's officer offered to help us, assuring us that tho ship would not sink. 1 , told him to cany tho other palient, and wu reached tho top, where wo lay exhausted on tho deck. The vessel was thou slanting towards the stern. An orderly wrapped mo in a blanket, and later lowered me in. n chair aboard a destroyer. I was placed on a couch in tho wardroom, the sailors bringing mo cocoa and clothing. Tho destroyer cruised about until daylight, picking up boats and dropping depth-bombs. Tho exertion of climbing up tho stairs reopened my wounds, but otnerwiso I am not seriously affected." A Racy Story. Private E. Scanlan, No. 4132, of Newtown, Sydney, is in the same hospital. Ho told a racy story:— "I got knocked at iJrDtonno'ux, a piece of shell getting within half an inch of my heart. I was lying on my back for 15 days when 1 was taken on board tho AVarilda. The torpedoing put tho wind up on me worse than the Boche shells. 1 forgot that I couldn't walk, and Btntck. out for tho stairs, climbing up them quicker than a 'possum. 1 rolled myself up in a blanket on deck. Then 1 remembered that I had left a bag with my cigarettes below. 1 felt that I must havo a 'fag,' so 1 climbed down again into the,darkness. I got the bag, and when the destroyer arrived I swung myself aboard on the end of a rope. I was never more active in my life. "Tho destroyer started rushing around, dropping depth-bombs, frightening mo worse than being torpedoed. A man must 1)0 gamo to take a berth on a destroyer," added Scanlan. "The Army won't get me to cross the Channel again. I wouldn't face the duck-pond for a fortun?." "What about, the little trip homo to Australia?" ho was asked. "Yes," he replied, "put mo down for tho first boat." "You are going to send my heroic story to Sydney!'" he guessed. "Well, if you knew how I was. scared you wouldn't," he added. Saving tha Girls, ' Charlotte Trowel, a AV.A.A.C, who was rescued, stated in an interview that she was pulled aboard tho boat by an Australian and' an American, who insisted on wrapping her in their blankets. She tried to'savo a lady passenger, and seized her by the hair, but her feet becamo entangled in the ropes, and it was impossible to extricate her. The lady collapsed, fell back, and was drowned. The wounded men assisted in saving tho girls. Their heroism and self-sacrifice werj unforgettable.