THE SAPPHO DISASTER.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 471, 24 August 1909, Page 4

THE SAPPHO DISASTER.

The collision between H.M.S. Sappho, a protected cruiser, and a liner of the same name off the Kentish coast in June, resulted in another page being added to the record of the courage and resourcefulness of the British Navy. “ The finest traditions of the coolness of the sailor in peril were maintained (says the Daily Mail). Water quenched the cruiser’s furnaces, the engine stopped, the pumps were useless, the electric light went out, the wireless call for rescue could not be sent. But her 273 men . . . stood calmly at their posts; the collision mats did their work ; the boats were got out, and flares and guns called aid from the shore.” Orders were obeyed by the crew, as coolly as if they were merely carrying out their daily routine tasks. In the stokehold, which in this case was the vulnerable part of the ship, arid was rapidly filling with water, the stokers remained in their dangerous quarters until it was found necessary to order them to leave. One Jack Tar, in relating the incident, says that when the order, “Lower the boats” was given, the crew went here and there quite quietly, except that they cracked a few jokes. “We might have been practising,” he added. ‘ ‘ Sailors are supposed to be superstitious,” said another member of the crew, “ but there were some curious facts about the incident. Our boat is H.M.S. Sappho, on the previous Saturday afternoon we passed a boat named Sappho, at night we were rammed by still another Sappho,” Another pleasing phase of this affair was the fine work done by women of the tiny hamlet near the scene of the collision. Within a short time of the distress signals being observed, two lifeboats were manned and launched. That the second was launched was due mainly to the devotion of the women and girls of the place. One of the girl helpers, herself the daughter of a dead lifeboat hero, tells the following story: “ When I heard the signal I ran just as I was, without hat or shawl, to the boathouse. Several of my girl friends and a few men were already ‘there. We pulled and tugged with all our might, and with the aid of moveable gliders we got the boat over the two hundred yards of level shingle to the beach. By this time the remainder of the crew had arrived, and the boat was launched. Then we felt happy, but anxious for the safety of those in danger.”