ACCOUNT OF SINKING

Hokitika Guardian, 28 February 1917, Page 2

ACCOUNT OF SINKING

13 Now Missing

(Received Fob 28, ar 10.20 a m.) London, Feb 27

The Daily Chronicle states the latest news of the LtcoAa state 1.3 are

raiesing

Torpedo explosions, account for moat of the billed and wounded.

. The staff and firemen underwent an awful ordeal, but were mos*ly picked up. Father Warring states that when the ship was torpedoed he went to the lifeboat assigned during the boat drills. There was a little confusion owing to the explosion extinguishing the electric lights. While the boat was being lowered, the tackles jammed. Dr Kennedy seeing a boat at a very dangerous angle cut the rope. He reached the water with similar difficulty in another life boat. Some of the occupants of . a third lifeboat were thrown into the sea including two Americans named Mrs and Miss Hoey. There is grave reason to fear that they are drowned, aa they arr missing. At the very moment my lifeboat was being rowed from the sinking ship, another explosion was heard and the b g vessel rolled over.

There was twenty minutss between the firing of the two torpedoes. Captain Irvine now decided to abandon the ship. The wireless operators meanwhile were hard at work, sending wireless calls. They got a prompt reply from a warship at Queenstown. Although the night was dark the moOD oame out occasionally and enabled us to sea tho grand spectacle of the noth ship disappearing beneath the waves.

W 8 were sn the boat from 9.30 until four in the morning. There was ro immediate danger, though there was a heavy A'.lintio swell. The women were very ill, but behaved admirably. He thinks ths deaths will not exceed ten.

Mrs Mills, a Toronto saloon passenger, said the experience was u terrible one. The women were in the drawingroom when the torpedo struck, They instantly knew what had happened. They had boat drill several times and were able to utilise the knowledge in getting in the boats.

When the submarine came to the surface to make sure of the Laconia’s destruction a man in a boat said to the submarine 'commander —“Don’t you know you torpedoed a ship containing women and children ?” The commander replied—“ They are all right for a few hours. A patrol boat will pick you up.”

Deaths Confirmed

(Received Feb 28, at 11 a.m.)

London, Feb 27

The death of Mrs and Mies Hoey, in the torpedoed steamer Laconia, are confirmed.

The Dead and Missing.

(Admiralty per Wireless Press.)

London, Feb 27

Official—Three of the Laoonia’a passengers ar6 dead and three missing l ! Six of the crew are missing and six hospitalled.