UNSINKABLE SHIP.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 September 1915, Page 4

UNSINKABLE SHIP.

SERIES OF ADVENTURES. A few weeks ago the British steamship Delmira was attacked' in the English Channel by a German submarine. An exciting chase ensued, but in the ebd the captain and crew of the steamer were forced t oabandon her. But the Delmira refused to sink. The folowing is the story of her remarkable exploits:-—"The Germans then went on board the vessel and placed a bomb under the forecastle, which set the forwa- I end of the vesel on fire. The submarine then discharged ' a torpedo, which struck the vessel in the engine room on the starboard side, blow ing a big hole in the shell and seriously damaging the machinery, but still the vessel did not sink. The Germans then left the Delmira, and towed the three boats containing the crew towards the English coast for an hour and a half, until they sighted the steamer Lizzie, when the submarine left, and the crew were taken on board the Lizzie and landod at Sandown Buy, in the Isle of Wight. ''Meanwhile the Delmira was drifting helplessly in the Channel, the fore end burning furiously, and in this condition was sighted by a British destroyer which came up with her, and, considering ljer a danger to navigation, put some shots into her with the intention of sinking the vessel. The ship remained afloat and she eventually drifted ashore on the French coast, about ten miles from Cherbourg, and sustained heavy bottom damage, The French naval authorities extinguished the fire and towed the Delmira to Cherbourg, where she was dry docked, and a large shield fitted over the hole in the engine room made bv the torpedo. After this was completed tho vessel was then towed to Sunderland, all the machinery was removed, to be reconstructed, and the ship herself towed round to the Tyne'to have the other repairs executed at the dry docks department of the Wallsend ship yard. The Delmira was built by Messrs. Short Brothers, Sunderland, in 1905,