HEROIC, BRITISH TARS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 130, 10 September 1910, Page 10

HEROIC, BRITISH TARS

DISABLED LINER TOWED TO PORT. STORY OF HEROISM. Eleven days overdue, the Austrian Lloyd liner Triesto put into Bombay after an adventurous voyage from tinport after which she is named. The delay was caused by the propeller snapping in mid-ocean, some 400 miles from Aden. Intense relief was caused in Austria 'by news of the vessel's safety. The ■Trieste was towed to port by the British steamer Lowther Grange, the crew of which vessel ■behwved with splendid heroism. At Trieste, where the anxiety had been doubly felt, all the ships iii tVe harbor were decorated with Hags, and the greater part of the men employed at the Lloyd arsenal were given a holiday. The Emperor and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand telegraphed their congratulations to the owners. The press generally recognises the assistance which was given by the Lowther Grange, which towed the Trieste for seven days, and the British Admiralty, which sent warships to search for the missing liner. On arriving at Bombay the passengers, of whom six were English, told thrilling narratives of the eventful voyage. The propeller shaft, it appears, snapped on June lfi, when the vessel was 400 miles ouit from Aden. Awnings were utilised as improvised sails, and tyOO miles had been sailed when the steamer Lowther Grange was sighted. After six days of heroic efforts in awful weather, during which the Lowther Grange's second engineer was killed and several others of her crew were injured, a steel hawser was attached to the Trieste., and the towing of the disabled ship began. Meanwhile provisions were becoming scarce on board the Trieste, and the cargo had to be broached, macaroni and raisins being consumed. The sea throughout was terrific. Close to Bombay the tow-rope again broke, and the Trieste was only got in by the most strenuous efforts. Sir Christopher Fairness has cabled to Captain Matthews a message, in which, while lamenting the loss of the second engineer and the injuries to nine of the crew, he warmly congratulated the master, officers and crew upon the bravery, skill and tenacity that they exhibited under conditions of weather described as "awful," Vienna newspapers handsomely acknowledge the services rendered .to the Trieste by the Lowther Grange. The New Free Press heads an article, "A Word of Thanks to the Lowther Grange" and says English seamen have rendered a great service to the Austrian mercantile marine. Comradeship between sailors is strong,, but what the Lowther Grange did for the disabled Trieste exceeds comradeship, and must be written in the- history of Austrian navigation. The Lowther Grange took her own fate in her hand by helping the Trieste, and did more than her strict duty. The English seamen who, defying death, stood by their comrades of the Trieste in utmost peril, the journal says,, have gained for themselves a permanent m&mforiial among seafaring nations. The Neues Wiener Tagblatt, commenting for the third time upon the rescue in an article entitled "Heroes of the Sea," writes that the name of the Lowther Grange stand's on the proudest page of history where the names of those are put down who risked their own existence to save their fellow-men. The Nobel Prize and medials ought to be given to such heroes, whose story is ennobling as a proof -that courage is not dead and bravery is to be found outside schoolbooks. The Tagblatt hopes the name of the officer who perished will soon become known, so that his deed may not Temain anonymous. The episode of the Lowther Grange, it concludes, is the finest combination of honest work, heroic character, and noble humanity- oblivious of frontiers.