TRAGEDY OF 1918

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 934, 29 March 1930, Page 1

TRAGEDY OF 1918

SURVIVOR OF GLATTON TELLS STORY LIVING IN WELLINGTON Press Association WELLINGTON, Today. William Thomas Fox, one of the survivors of H.M.S. Glatton, the monitor, which was deliberately torpedoed in Dover Harbour in 1918, lives in Wellington. He was a first-class petty-officer. At the time, the vessel was taking munitions across, and called at Dover for coal. Fox was changing in the bathroom when the first explosion occurred, and he saw a mass of flames in the gangway, but made a dash and hit something which rendered him unconscious. When he came to he made an attempt to flood the magazines, but the heat drove him back, badly burned. The next thing he remembered was someone dragging him by a rope to safety and within a few minutes the ship was ablaze from end to end and the men were jumping into the water. Destroyers came alongside and tried to rescue the crew, but finding it hopeless, five torpedoes were fired into the ship to save the town and she j sank with 100 men on board. Several decorations were awarded for bravery, one in particular being given to Surgeon-Lieutenant Atkinson, Blinded himself by the explosion he still managed to rescue several men. His life was despaired of, but ultimately he recovered. A cable from London published on Thursday said: “A poignant and littleknown tragedy of the war was recalled by the arrival at Chatham of the ! remains of an officer and 57 men who were among the victims of the sinking * of the Glatton. , “The monitor Glatton, 5.700 tons, ' caught fire in Dover Harbour on Sep- , ] tember 16, 1318. There was no chance 1 ! of saving her and, therefore, in ordei r 1 to prevent her magazines from exploding and creating widespread havoc i she was deliberately torpedoed. “More than 100 out of the 303 offi- £ cers and men on board were sacrifice-. to prevent much greater loss. Thvessel has now been raised and th( bodies recovered. They will be buriec f with naval honours at Gillinghan Cemetery oi/ April 3.’*