Liner’s Escape from German Cruiser.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 4, 29 January 1915, Page 3

Liner’s Escape from German Cruiser.

BRITISH CAPTAIN’S RESOURCE. The Secretary of the Admiralty communicates for publication letters which have been received concerning the escape of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s steamship Ortega from a German cruiser. The Ortega sailed from Valparaiso for Rio de Janeiro with some 300 French reservists on board. When she had arrived close to the western entrance of the Straits of Magellan a German cruiser of the Dresden class suddenly appeared and gave chase. The normal speed of the Ortega is only some 14 knots per hour, whereas the speed of the German cruiser was at least 21 knots per hour. Under these circumstances Captain Douglas Reid Kinneir took a heroic resolve" He called for volunteers to assist in stoking his uessel ; the appeal inet with hearty response, and a speed of 18 knots was thereby attained. The master, headed his ship straight for the entrance of a passage known as Nelson’s Strait (a dangerous -passage which is entirely uncharted), while the pursuing cruiser kept firing at him with two heavy bow guns. Luckily none of the phots took effect, and ’the Ortega succeeded in ientering Nelson's Strait, where the German cruiser dare not follow her. By sending boats ahead Captain, Kinneir was able to navigate his vessel through the channel, which bristles with reefs and pinnacle rocks, and finally reached Rio de Janeiro without having sustained even a scratch to his plates.