THE 13 RATS.

Shannon News, 10 June 1924, Page 4

THE 13 RATS.

PHANTOM CRUISER'S' ADVENTURE. How strangely tttie ''Unlucky 13" was mixed up in the terrible adventure of 11.M.5. Sutlej, the "phantom cruis-»r" of the North Sea, and the men aboard her is shown by the stories they tell now that they have safely landed here, and are a little rested (writes the Belfast correspondent of the London "Evening News"). There were 13 men in the obsolete war vessel. On tho 13th day of the 27 days' drift, out of tho fourteen boats one was lost! : It was on March 13 thati the vessel way taken-in tow'by a destroyer, but the hawser parted, leaving tho ship, to drift for another two days. . Moreover, a sailor solemnly assured me that. bcfor e the vessel left Rosyth he counted 13 rats leaving the ship, which to him was an ominous sign. At first" the men lived in the Admiral's cabin, but it was flooded by shipped seas to a depth of 3ft, and they sought refuge in the pantry. "Waves washed our feet all during the night." one sailor told me, "and it was really a continuous cold bath. We hardly got a wink during 1 the Whole days of drifting." Th e men could only tell the way the wind was blowing by the sun. Not only had they to smoke tealeaves when their tobacco gavo out, but their oil was also exhausted, and they had to sit in the dark, which, with the intense cold, accentuated their unhappy plight. Every night they tried to sleep, but in vain, for apart from, iihe water washing over their feet, their clothes were drenched and there were no. fires to dry them. All available wood was used to keep the fires on deck going in the hope that the flares would be seen. ■ . , .^j^JlH The Sutlej seems to have drifted most of tilxe ume some 80 miles off Peterhead, Aberdeen shire, and the men think she covered 20 miles a day. To tlio very last these were mishaps. When the vessel reached Belfast two ladders were smashed in the effort to get the crew ashore, and finally they had to crawl through tilie portholes. -