DESTROYER’S FAST TRIP

Taihape Daily Times, 31 December 1918, Page 5

DESTROYER’S FAST TRIP

" ! FIFTY MILES AN HOUR,

ANSWERING “5.0.5.” CALL.

An instance of how the men of the navy rise to the occasion when danger threatens is told by Mr D. C. McTavish, second officer of the Runic, who was fourth officer on the hospital ship Brittanic when she was torpedoed in the Mediterranean on November 21, 1916. When the vessel was torpedoed at 8 a.m. an S.O.S. signal was sent out. This was picked up by a destroyer at Mudros, 50 miles away. The destroyer immediately left for the scene of the disaster with every man it was possible to put in her stokehold shovelling coial into the furnaces. Her boilers were almost bursting with the steam they were forced to carry, and when she reached the spot where the Britannic had sank at 9 a.m. she was covered with ashes emitted out of her funnel by the forced draught. She had covered the distance in an hour, and when her engineers were spoken to regarding her smart performance, they simply remarked, “She was wanted, and she had to do it.” It was a greater speed Ithan (she ihad! ever idonje before, or is likely to do again. The Britannic had no wounded on board. Her company consisted of 1160 people, made up of crew .and R.AjM.C., staff including SO nurses. Twenty-nine of the crew and 31 of the E.A.M.C. staff lost their lives, the nurses and stewardesses being saved. The steamer sank in 51 minutes, and during that time 36 out of the 57 boats she carried were launched., A stewardess who had been saved from the Titanic nearly lost her life on the Britannic. She fell out of a boat hanging at the davits into the sea. 70ft, below, biit was picked up badly stunned Mr MaeTavish said the Britannic was a fine steamer of 47,500 tons, 887 ft. long. When lit up at night with 800 ft. of green lights ialong her sides and red crosses '3Bf(t. high oni her boat deck, she looked a fine sight. When coaling at the wharf at Naples her lights reflected over the town, and thousands of people visited the wharves to admire her.