SUNK BY SUBMARINE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 93, 14 January 1919, Page 5

SUNK BY SUBMARINE

•LOSS OR POUT HARDY. . An account of the loss of tho Commonwealth and : Dominion Line steamer Port-Hardy, which was torpedoed' last 'July, was brought to Auckland .by the company's steamer Port Lyttpltnn'<n Thursday. . The captain, chief officer,' chief steward, arid refrigerating engineer of the Port Lyttelton. were on tlie Port Hardy when she was sunk, The steamer was bound from Buenos .Aires to Genoa- with a valuahle cargo of foodstuffs for the'ltalian■ Government, : At. 10 a.nv on July ,6 a torpedo was sifrhted ahout 100.yards on the starboard heam. "Before the; helm could he 'shifted the torpedo struck the '.vessel.'abreast of the engine-room. The explosion wrecked the enpinerroom, and probably blew in the bulkheads as I the snip.'sank; stern first, in twenty 'minutes. The 'second arid ths-fourth engineer and five of .the engine-room staff' lost their lives; :■ It is .-thought that they rare'killed'by. the explosion, as they were not scon after the torpedo struck, the vessel. The other members of-the crew escaped in three of the boats. . Then the submarine, which had 'pot: been."E'en previously,' , came to the surface, snd .went alongside : 6ne of (the boats. After the ; a; number of Questions the enemy ves> sel made off. . ;.. ' ;,. . ;

One'of the JJorti'Hsirdy'e boats was .picked up.the.next day, and t\in• other two•:about'three days lafa>r.,.Tho survivors: were all taken to''Gibraltar, the nearest pert. ": .'■■;■"'.- : The, second engineer,'. Mr.' Miller, who lost his,life, was one of the survivors nf the-Port Kembia, which was junk b'y an explosion off Cape Farewell.jn 1917: <". '.--. '■ ' ■ '