U-BOAT ATTACKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20052, 26 September 1939, Page 6

U-BOAT ATTACKS

COLLIER SUNK LIFEBOAT SAVES CREW NEUTRAL SHIP LOST SURRENDER TO SWEDEN POLISH. SUBMARINE (Reed. Seot. 2G, 1.20 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 25. A German submarine, without warning, attacked the Frenh collier Phrynu on the English Const on Sunday. | Longshoremen heard an explosion' and saw a column of smoke. The crew i of 24 put off in two boats from which] a lifeboat from the shore rescued them. Two men were injured. Two destroyers, which raced to the scene, departed alter the Phryne sank. Twenty-three survivors of the torpedoed British ship Hazelsidc, were] landed by a coastal steamer. A member of the crew described how the captain decided to run for it. He finally ordered tho engines to be stepped which was done by the engineer who had had his arm blown off during the attack. Father’s Death Recalled Two British aircraft arrived and the submarine disappeared. The survivors were four hours in the boat. The dead include the first officer, whose father was drowned after his 1

ship was torpedoed in the last war,

The Ministry of Information confirms the fears expressed on Saturday that all hope* must be given up for the officers and crew of the Royal Sceptre, the British steamship which was sunk on September G. She carried a crew of 32, who were cast adrift in their boats without a possible hope of reaching land. After giving the names, ihe Ministry states: “The sinking was a .foul act of piracy in direct contravention to the submarine protocol signed by Germany in 193 G which was binding for all time. The Protocol made it abundantly clear that no warship, submarine or otherwise was justified in sinking merchantmen unless the crew were placed in safety.” Swedish Ship Sunk

A message from Stockholm, says that the 1939 ion Swedisli steamer Silesia, bound for England with lumber, was torpedoed and sunk off Stavanger. The Swedish steamer Sueciaa rescued the crew. The Polish submarine Zbik, with her emergency rations exhausted, surrendered to the Swedisli authorities who disarmed and interned the crew. The Zbik was at sea for 24 days and the five officers and 49 men were exhausted. They had been several times scalhlessly in action against German warships, despite the use of depili charges. According to the Berlin correspondent of file Associated Press of Great Britain, the Berlin High Command says that a German submarine has been sunk at sea. “The war has also yielded good results to us,” it says.