THE LUSITANIA HORROR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 296, 24 May 1915, Page 6

THE LUSITANIA HORROR.

FEARFUL SCENES. j HUNDRED'S DRAGGED TO 'DEATH. DEAD MOTHERS AND BABIES.' The following cable messages appear in the Sydney Sun: The trip of the Lusitania across tne Atlantic was uneventful. The passengers were not apprehensive of any danger, altnough the captain ordered the lifeboats to be ready. On Friday the passengers on deck sighted the periscope of a submarine 1000 yds away. Immediately a white streak was seen in the water, the torpedo penetrating the engine-room. The liremen effected a marvellous escape by scrambling up the ladders. ■ A second torpedo came a moment later and snat- | tered the ship's hull 180 ft further forward.

The terrific explosions threw up iron plates and woodwork in every direction. Water poured in where the holes had lieen torn in the vessel's side. A rtarboard list prevented the passengers ■walking up the stairways, and rendered useless the port boats. The captain endeavored to calm the passengers. The crew behaved magnificently, helping the women and children iiito the boats, and keeping the wireless calls going till the vessel foundered, which she rapidly did, going down bow first. The sea was full of people clinging to pieces of wreckage. Some wen? pulled into the boats. The captain unnamed on the bridge, and was picked up in tlie water three hours later. The boats drifted in the smooth sea until assistance arrived. Many of the passengers were shockingly injured by the explosion, and there were piteous scenes on arriving at Queenstown. Many of the survivors were wrapped in blankets, They were removed in motorcars and military ambulances.

Till'; SUHMAIIIXE SIGHTED. A cabin steward states Hint the vessel wiis doing sixteen knots, and was fifteen liiili-s oil shore when the first torpedo staggered her. The second smashed the side of the gigantic ship into fragments. Passengers say they saw a submarine on the starboard how. It suddenly dived and discharged the torpedoes, and was not seen again. " A seaman named Davis says that the speed of the Lusitania had been reduced during the morning, but on Hearing Fastiiet the vessel was put at full speed just prior to the first explosion occurring. Immediately the explosion took placc the captain headed the vessel for land. A second explosion followed, killing. and injuring many passengers who were at lunch. Mr. T. Smithurst, thought to be one of the passengers from Sydney, states that the vessel listed two minutes after being struck. Many passengers, fearing that the ship would turn over, were panic-stricken. Others were calm, declaring that the ship was unsinkable. Women and children were 'placed in the boats first. Many men, wearing lifebelts, jumped into the sen. Mrs. ilowley, who was floating about on a piece of wreckage, saw a little girl drowning, and gripped her dress. Both were rescued. Tile child's mother' and five sisters were drowned. III'NDUEDS DRAGGED DOWN.

Xumbcrs of dead bodies which were picked tip were encircled by lifebelts. Many survivors were floating about for hours. Several boats were overcrowded and swamped. Others were destroyed by the force of the explosion. The ship sank like a stone, dragging down hundreds into the vortex. There were appalling shrieks and cries. Some of the boats which had been launched narrowly escaped engulfment in a whirlpool of death when the ship went down.

Queenstown is a vast morgue. There are IS) bodies laid out on the Cunard wharf and at the military and public morgues. A number of bodies are those of beautiful American girls, well dressed, with jewellery on their fingers, and wristlet watches which had stopped at three o'clock. 'Most of the women are bootless, or they are wearing only one boot, evidencing hurried efforts to remore their footwear to facilitate swimming. There are bodies of mothers with dead bodies clasped l in t'-eir arms. There will be many infants' funerals on Monday. Two hundred and fifty soldiers have , been requisitioned to do grave-digging. CiiCRMAN FIENDISHNESS. The Times' correspondent at Queenstown writes:— "The horror and execration that filled the mind at the first tidings of the crowning atrocity of German fiendishness deepens witli every passing hour. The lingering hope that others might be picked up by vessels bound Englandwards is dispelled, and the appalling fact must be accepted that 1400 souls have been sacrificed to the enemy's' mad lust for- murder. 'Tlrief and loathing do not exhaust the feelings of those who have listened to the poignant stories of the survivors. The smaller details do not agree. The recollections of the narrators when confronted with deatli are blurred, hut there are no discrepancies in the vital points. The common evidence furnishes a harrowing and disquieting story. "The most important questions that obtrude are: Coulcl the disaster have been prevented? and Could not many more have been saved?

FLOATED 'FOR TWENTY MINUTES. "Here was a giant steamer on a placid and sunlit sea only a few miles from the shores of Ireland." A torpedo despatched by a stealthily hidden and merciless foe shattered her side and sent her with awful suddenness to her doom. Shi! iloated for twenty minutes, listing helplessly over oh her damaged side, not plunging, not rocking. She gently dipped her bows and was gone. '•Two hours later tugs and armen trawlers began to reach the spot, and lifted the- living and injured and dead from the crowded anil half-swamped boats, picking up men, women and children who were swimming or clinging to bits of wreckage, or were supported by lifebelts. Many did not respond to tlie resuscitation methods. They were most scantily clothed, and in some cases were injured about the heads and arms. Children had suffered from hours of immersion, but on shore there was a ready hospitality, and the warmth and comfort of houses and hotels. PITIFUL APPEALS.

'•'Contributing to the boundless grief of the survivors was the fact that there was no news of friends or relatives who had been fellow-passengers. Women appealed piteously for their husbands and children. 'Distraught mothers were enquiring at every house to know whether their dear ones were among the latest arrivals. They were torn between dread and hope, and in most eases the hope was, unhappily, unjustified. , "Hundreds of individual experiences will never be solemn leave-takings of husbands and wives, parents and children, in the fleeting moments before the ship went down. At that moment a woman jumped from the topmost point of the ship, not ri'veaming, but with one long, wailing, mournful, despairing, beseeching cry. SCRAMBLE FOR 'LIFE.

Dr. Ross from Montana, describes that when the foremost funnel leaned sidewavs he jumped into the water near the propeller, which was still revolving, though diminishing in speed. Ho no° iced tliat a boat that bad been smashed was<! still hanging from the davits,

and that women and children were juin]>jng overboard on tlie port sidCj which high above tlie water. He held up a woman who was clasping a child to her breast until they were m danger of being dragged under by a drifting boat. Fearing the suction of the sinking liner, Dr. Ross swam away about a hundred yards. Then he approached a boatload of women.

The craft was leaking badly, and he urged the occupants to keep baling. They, however, had nothing to do this ■with lmt their hands. The boat was soon capsized, and many of the women grasped the upturned boat. , tSo many caught at one side that their weight was overturning it completely. They endeavored to clamber in, and capsized the boat again. The craft was revolved in this way six times, when a few of those surviving managed to climb in. Two women who remained in the water grasped each end of an oar, and they were propelled to a canvas raft. An unconscious woman was picked lip hy a steamboat. Several lifeboats were still banging from the davits when the Lusit.ania plunged to the bottom. Alter leaving Mew York Dr. Ross saw only two British warships. The funnel of the disappearing liner smashed a lifeboat, killing several who were in it. Others got ashore in rescue boats.

Senator Dayala, the Cuban Consul at Liverpool, came ashore at Queenstown, accompanied by an athletic woman, dressed in sailor's trousers and jumper, whose swimming powers saved her life. Iter husband was drowned.

Women landing in bedraggled clothes and clammy, flowing hair, leaned on the willing arms of bluejackets. Passengers wearing only trousers with shawls over their shoulders besieged the post office, cabling to their friends in America.

AN AUSTRALIAN'S LUCK. Lieutenant Frederick Lassettcr lias telegraphed from Dublin saying that the other Australians on board were Mr. Charles and Mrs. Lcaroyd. He states that when the first torpedo struck the snip Mrs. Lassetter was at luncheon, and lie was on deck with Mr. J. Foster Stackliouse, the explorer, talking near the Learoyds' cabin. Mrs. Lassetter was covered with lilaek smuts from the explosion. She went to her cabin, obtained a lifebelt, and then came up on deck. Lieutenant Lassetter then parted from his mother and secured a lifebelt for himself and another for his mother, who, he found, was vn a boat. This was upset. He jumped into the sea and swam to an upturned boat which had been soon overcrowded. He then swam to a flag-case, currying his mother on his back. Then lie grabbed a floating oar and paddled with the case, which was continually turning over and over. He clung to it from "2.30 until 5.30, when they were picked up by the Greek collier Katerine, which had previously run down a steam trawler. His mother was somehow struck by the propeller. Tile Loaroyds reaeffed a boat, but it, with another launched from the top, was hit by a falling funnel, and its occupants flung into the water. Mrs. Lcaroyd was picked up, and she saw her husband struggling, but he could ! not get to safety. Mrs. Lassettcr saw him later on an upturned boat. They still have hopes that he was rescued. Mrs. Lcaroyd is staying at Queenstown. All the Australians speak of the liraverv and calmness of the passengers. There was absolutely no panic. The scene was awful, anil the dying screams of the people in the sea were teii'ifving. Miss .Hurley. Miss Uissetter's maid, arrived at Quceiistmvn an hour after her mistress. She stated thai, she did not remember anything after she jumped o^rlioard. The Lassetters declare that they felt the shocks from two torpedoes' first, these arriving :t few seconds apart, anil a third ten minutes later. The list, on the ship was so great that men had to push the women up the companionwavs.