THE LOST CRUISERS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1303, 26 September 1914, Page 3

THE LOST CRUISERS.

GRAPHIC STORY OF CHIEF GUNNER. TORPEDOES DISCHARGED AMID MEN. London, Sept. 2-1. Further details of the loss of the cruisers Cressy, Aboukir and Hogue by German submarines are available. Albert J. Dougherty, the chief gunner of the cruiser Cressy, states ; “We were steaming slowly iu line somewhere off the coast of Holland. A hundred yards approximately separated each vessel. Suddenly we heard a great crash, and the middle ship, the Aboukir, heeled over, going down rapidly. We closed up with the sinking ship, when there was a second crash, and the Hogue began to settle down. As we drew near to go to them, someone shouted to me ; ‘Look out there’s a submarine on the port beam,’ “I saw she was about four hundred yards away, her periscope beiug above the waves, I took careful aim with a 12-pndr. ; the shot went over her about two yards. I gave the range, fired again and hit the periscope. She disappeared, but came up again, showing her conning-tower. I fired a third time and smashed in the top of the conning-tower. After that I shot at a trawler a thousand yards away. She was evidently a German disguised, aud was directing - operations. The shot set her afire, but I do not know her ultimate fate. At this time we had been struck by one torpedo, but the damage done was not vital.

“Then we saw a second submarine on the" starboard, and made a desperate effort to get her, but failed, and her torpedo got home in the engine-room, and the Cressy began to turn over. I believe Captain Johnson went down with the ship. One torpedo passed under the stern, the enemy actually discharging torpedoes while the water, was thick with drowning men. I saw five submarines, but only one was hit.”