ON THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 November 1915, Page 5

ON THE SEA.

LOSS OF THE ANGLIA. j FURTHER PARTICULARS. 1 AN INVALID'S STORY. I Received Nov. 1!), 3.23 p.m. London, Nov. If. A signaller named Hunter, who had been in the trenches for eleven months, and has been invalided as sick, boarded the Anglia at Boulogne on Wednesday morning. He states: "The convalescent-; wen* on deck, taking tea and sand-wiehe-i. when suddenly there was a sound of ship's plates breaking up. The loud boring, whirring noise was followed by (he dull noise of an explosion. I and five comrades tried to get n lifeboat off the davits, but the ship heeled over while we were loosening the rope. HANGING HEAD DOWNWARDS. "My foot was jammed between the boat and the deek, and I lay hanging over the side of the ship, head downwards. until the Anglia made a big lisl. which released the crushed foot. 1 regained the deck of the Anglia, which was now nose down, the waves breaking over the bridge. A number of us gave lifebelts to the badly wounded, and told them to jump into the sea, but many hesitated. The sea was very choppy. JUMPED TOR IT. '"iJcamvhile the collier Lnsitanin, which was approaching, was hit, at 300 yards distance, but destroyers were coming out from Dover and came alongside. The Anglia was settling fast. I saw steam issuing from the deck in great clouds, and as I expected her to make the last plunge for it every moment, I jumped. I had not got a'lifebelt, and have never been able to swim a vard in my life, but 1 knew I had to go for it this time. SAYING A CHUM. '■l had seen fellows swimming in baths at Ilampstead, and just did "like they did. I got hold of a log of wood to which three men were clinging, and a i few minutes later we passed a man with a badly fractured arm. He was a chum, and I got hold of him and paddled alongside the log again. The water was terrifically cold. He begged us to let him go, r ' but we managed to get his right leg over the log, and the four of us got our knees underneath him. PATHETIC SCENES. /'We must have been in the water for thirty-five minutes. Time after time men came alongside and hung on for a few minutes, and then disappeared. It was simply awful to see their faces as they went under. "Eventually u destroyer lowered a boat and picked us up. Perhaps the most terrible sight was one we saw when a destroyer was coming slowly alongside the Anglia. The warship's men shouted to our fellows to jump, and lots of them did so, but two missed the deck of the destroyer. They fell between the vessels, and got flattened out and sank."