A TORPEDOED WARSHIP

Hokitika Guardian, 29 March 1930, Page 5

A TORPEDOED WARSHIP

SURVIVOR RIVING IN WELLINGTON. (By Telegraph—Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, March 29. William Thomas Fox, one of the survivors of 11.M.5. Olatton, deliberately torpedoed in Dover Harbour m 1918, lives in Wellington. He was a First Class Petty Officer at the time the vessel was taking munitions across and called at Dover For coal. Fox was changing in the Oath room when the first explosion occurred and saw a mass of flames in the gangway but made a dash and hit something which rendered him unconscious. When he came to, he. made an attempt to flood the magazine but the heat drove him back. He was baoiy burned and the next tiling he iomembered was someone dragging him by a rope to safety. Within a few minutes the ship was ablaze from end to end, and the men were jumping into the water. Destroyers cam? alongside and tried to rescue the crew, but finding it hopeless, five, torpedoes were fired into the ship to save the town and she sank v, ith a hundred men on board. Several decorations were awarded for bravery, one in particular being to Surgeon Lieutenant Atkinson. Blinded himself by the explosion lie still managed to rescue several men. His life was despaired of but he ultimate! v recovered.