SNOWSTORM IN ENGLAND,

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIII, Issue 9131, 28 April 1908, Page 5

SNOWSTORM IN ENGLAND,

LOSS OF THE GLADIATOR. FURTHER DETAILS. Press Association —Copyright. , London, April 27. The Gladiator was returning from Portland to Spithead in a blinding snowstorm. When steaming past Port Victoria —well inside the first point—at a speed of ten knots, she sighted the St. Paul approaching, rather faster, about 200 yards away. The liner gave orders to reverse the engines—full steam astern—but the collision was unavoidable. The liner’s bow crashed Gladiator’s starboard side, nearly amidships, cutting into her up to her centre line, and into the engine room. The liner went astern, and the ruiser began to list heavily. She steamed for the beach, taking the ground about 400 yards from the shore, then turned completely on the starboard side, the stern being almost dead on shore, when she heeled. A number of the crew jumped into the water; others were thrown into the water and tried to swim ashore. The rest of the crew clambered over to the port side, which was standing well out of the water, and remained until they were rescued by boats.

An inrush of the sea in the boiler room followed the liner’s backing out, and some say caused the boiler to explode, scalding and injuring many. The closing of'the watertight doors prevented foundering and the fore boilers, and engines, working at high pressure, got the vessel close inshore before they became unmanageable. A stoker below at the time states that the first warning was the crash . of the liner’s bow into the messroom killing a man on the spot. The crew displayed perfect discipline, quietly awaiting their turn of being taken ashore. The liner’s fire bulkhead averted any serious damage, though the St. Paul’s stern was injured bo.h over and below the water line. It is known that six of the Gladiator’s crew were drowned or died, and the injured are six or more. The injured in hospital include Lieut. Graves. Thirty bands are missing. The St. Paul had 500 passengers. The Gladiator is on a soft bottom, in a sheltered position, and it is ex- \ peoted that salvage operations will be successful. The crew numbered 300, and it is feared that some of the missing have perished. CAUSE OF THE COLLISION, Received April 28,’8.1 a.m. London, April 27. . The Daily Chronicle states that the Gladiator’s’men assert that they received from the liner a signal to go to port. The cruiser was then in her own water, and went hard-a-port, but the liner instead of changing her direction kept on her coruse, causing the collision. Witnesses on the liner say that the cruiser was hugging the shore and went to port instead of keeping her course. Twenty-three of the crew of the Gladiator are still missing. The Gladiator is a second-class protected cruiser, 5750 tons, 320 feet long, feet beam, 10,000 h.p., built at Portsmouth, launched 1896, and completed 1900, at a cost of £387,604. Her speed is 19 knots and complement 480 men.