“FOR EVER ENGLAND”

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 1 September 1928, Page 9

“FOR EVER ENGLAND”

BRITISH DEAD GO HOME

MEN OF LOST SUBMARINE

SOLEMN CEREMONY (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) Times Cable . Reed. noon. LONDON, Friday. “fT was as if the heavens mourned. An incessant down--1 pour, under which the- flags of the government and foreign offices clung dejectedly half-mast, attended the progress of the green-hulled steamer Truro, whose flag also hung at half-mast, alongside the cruiser Champion, to tranship the remains of the officers and crew of the ill-fated British submarine L 55, which was sunk in the Baltic in 1919.”

Thus does the Reval correspondent of “The Times” describe the transhipment. “The Truro had come from Kronstadt, where none of her company went ashore, but Soviet officials had escorted the naval pinnace towing a barge draped with crape and swathed in evergreens, hearing the 39 coffins, over which 20 Soviet sailors mounted guard, their bayonets agleam. “All the Soviet warships had their flags half-masted. A band aboard the barge played the ’Dead March’ as the Truro’s derricks hoisted the coffins one by one aboard. “The Soviet officials had marked those containing officers with a small cross. “Immediately the coffins had been placed under hatches, the Truro departed, while the warship Aurora’s band played the ‘Dead March,’ and there boomed out a slow salute, every vessel in the harbour dipping its colours. The Truro, arriving alongside the Champion, opened its hatches to permit the derricks to hoist the coffins on

white wooden trays aboard the cruiser, where four bluejackets bore them reverently to the quarter-deck. “Here four bluejackets in oilskins mounted guard with arms reversed, four overcoated marines similarly standing at the poop. After the last coffin had been placed on the quar-ter-deck, all were draped with Union Jacks. Hardly had the Truro sailed for London when wreaths began to arrive from the shore. “Distinguished officials of the British diplomatic service, and three British air officers participated in the official ceremony, moving along the rows of coffins, saluting and placing wreaths on them. “An Esthonian military band played ‘Nearer My God to Thee/ the sailors standing at attention and civilians bareheaded in the relentless rain. An Esthonian firing squad thrice volleyed, buglers played the ‘Last Post,’ and the mourners departed, the crew bearing the coffins below as the Champion headed toward the open sea.” She is due at Portsmouth on Septem her 5.