GRAPHIC DETAILS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 220, 29 March 1917, Page 5

GRAPHIC DETAILS.

STRUCK BY TWO TORPEDOES. Received 8.55. LONDON, March 28.

Two torpedoes struck the Asturias at midnight on the 20th. The weather was fine, but dark. The majority of the,, crew and the hospital staff were in their bunks. The first torpedo struck the rudder, and the second the engine-room, where it damaged the machinery and put out the electric light throughout the ship. Patrol vessels quickly answered the distress signals. Many survivors were towed to a British port in boats, most of whom were thinly clad, just as they jumped out of their bunks. As far as the German submarine could tell, the Asturias might have been full of sick and wounded. The men aboard knew of Germany’s threat to torpedo hospital ships, but most of them considered such dastardly conduct impossible and unbelievable. Newspapers recall the Foreign Office’s declaration of January 31, that if the threat to sink hospital ships was carried out reprisals will immediately be taken. This was the second attempt to torpedo the Asturias, the first being-north-west of Havre on Ist February, 1915.

The Morning Post states the first torpedo passed right through the stern. Another larger hole, directly above that made by the torpedo, was caused by the breaking and twisting of the propeller, and the water poured in. The Asturias drifted on to the rocky coast, where she now lies. Meanwhile, the boats, which were already out were lowered away, and the nursing sisters first placed in them. There was an exceptional number of women aboard, owing to bringing back those sisters whose period of service had expired. One fully loaded boat capsized, and some of the occupants were in the water for about an hour. The thought of every man aboard the Asturias was: “Thank God, we landed the patients yesterday, otherwise there would have been a thousand sick and wounded aboard, many of whom were unable to move hand or foot, some unable even to cry out for help. The villagers generously supplied the hospital staff and crew with clothing, blankets, and boots. There were many slight injuries, apart from those severely hurt.

NO EXCUSE~FOR THE CRIME, LONDON, March 28. The Admiralty reports that the British hospital ship Asturias, while steaming with all navigation lights and all distinguishing Red Cross signs brilliantly illuminated, was torpedoed without warning during the night of the 20th inst. The military casualties are 11 dead and three missing including a female staff nurse) and 17 injured. The crew casualties are 20 dead and nine missing (including a stewardess) and 22 injured. The torpedoing of the ship is an achievement claimed" for U boats by a German wireless message.