EATEN BY SHARKS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 October 1917, Page 1

EATEN BY SHARKS.

U-BOAT CAPTAIN LOOKS ON yrCTIAIS’ TERRIBLE PATE.

Details ol' the circumstances of the torpedoing of the steamer Ataristoii, says Reuter, provide another instance of the barbarity displayed by German submarine commanders. The vessel was torpedoed early in the morning of Julv 15. After the ship had disappeared, tlie cook, who had jumped overboard with a hatch, counted 17 men clinging to the wreckage. The submarine, a-large ere ft painted jet black, came to' the surface in the midst of her struggling and drowning victims. The latter noticed a trap-door open in tlie conning-tower of tlie U-boat, and an officer stood looking through his binoculars for several minutes at the struggling forms in the water. The German officer silently ignored all appeals for assistance, although there was 110 other vessel in sight, and the whole of the crew of the Mansion could easily have been rescued by the submarine in a few minutes. At this moment one of the drowning men disap : pea red, with a piercing scream, and a moment later another vanished in the same way. The horror of the situation had been enhanced by the arrival cm the scene of a.school of sharks. All the brave men of the Mansion, except one, suffered a horrible death in the jaws of these monsters. The scene was too much even for the U-boat commander, for lie closed the trap-door of the conning tower and submerged his vessel. Fifteen hours later the sole survivor of the tragedy was rescued by a British merchant vessel. [ The Maristou was a steel screw steamer, of 2,900 tons, built in 1915 by Russel and Co., Glasgow, for \Y. ,S. Miller and Co.]