TUG WRECKED

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 870, 14 January 1930, Page 9

TUG WRECKED

TWENTY LIVES LOST IN ATLANTIC STRUCK BY A GALE Reed. 10.35 a.m. LONDON, Monday. The Admiralty announces that the tug St. Genny, which is attached to the Atlantic Fleet, sank during a gale off Ushant with the loss of 20 lives. The Saint Genny struck a tremendous sea. Her platirq; was stove in and she sank immediately. Searchlights picked out struggling men, five of whom were rescued by life-lines. The cruiser Frobisher, escorting the sloop Snapdragon and the tug Saint Cyrus, anchored off Plymouth with the survivors of the Saint Genny aboard. They will be landed at Devonport in the morning. THRILLING RESCUE It is reliably learned that disaster overtook the St. Genny with incredible speed. Together with two other ships, she was hove to in a gale of a strength of SO miles an hour. Gusts reached a velocity of 100 miles an hour. Following one tremendous sea, observers on the sloop Snap Dragon and the tug St. Cyprus failed to detect the St. Genny’s lights. Searchlights immediately pierced the darkness. A number of men were observed struggling in the mountainous seas. No lifeboat could live in it, but by a magnificent piece of manoeuvring the Snap Dragon and SL Cyprus were able to get near enough to throw lifelines. Shipping circles at Portland regard the rescue of the five men as a miracle in the circa instances. Survivors say the vessel was completely flooded in a few seconds. She sank like a stone. The St. Cyprus also was damaged.