LOSS AVENGED

Opotiki News, Volume II, Issue 265, 29 November 1939, Page 3

LOSS AVENGED

BRITISH SHIP U-BOAT CAUGHT CHARGES DROPPED TOLL CONTINUES & ALINES AND TORPEDOES RUGBY, Nov. 27. Survivprs of the British steamer Pensilva, of 4258 tons, which was sunk in the Atlantic on November 19, believe that the U-boat which torpedoed the ship was finished with depth charges by destroyers. „ A warning shot was put aeros.s the - Pensilva’s bows, stated two Maltose able-bodied seamen, who landed at Cardiff. 'The ship shopped and the crew took to the lifeboats. Then she was torpedoed. Just after that destroyers arrived and avenged her. The merchant vessel’s crew were taken, on hoard the warships. The Holland-Amerika liner Spaarndam struck a mine in the Thames estuary and sank. A Kentish lifeboat found her badly damaged and sinking Elderly Woman Passenger Four members of the civ.v and an elderly woman passenger lost then lives, three being drowned and two hilled by the explosion of the mine. Forty-one other members of the crew were taken aboard the pilot cutter. The loss occurred at 10 a.m. while the vessel was en route to Rotterdam. The bows were torn open as far as the upper deck and the forehatch was I,lown off. An S.O.S. wms sent out and the crew took to the boats. Later they were flicked up by the pilot cutter. The sinking of the Royston Grange in the Atlantic without lows of Lit*, announced to-day, brings the total Ihitish losses by mines, torpedoes ami gunfire for the week ended on Saturday to 11 ships totalling 25,787 tons. The Royston Grange was torpedoed. Swedish Oil Tanker it is explained that the Swedish oil tanker Gustaf E. Reuter, which was reported yesterday to have been sunk while en route t 0 Curaco in ballast, was mined off the Scottish coast.