TORPEDOED TRANSPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1915, Page 6

TORPEDOED TRANSPORT.

WELLINGTON ' MEDICAL OFFICER'S EXPERIENCE. HANGS ON TO BOAT FOR SEVEN HOURS. A Wellington medical officer, who was on the transport Marquette when the vessel was torpedoed, writes as follows of his experiences:— "As you will know bv now, we bad the misfortune to be torpedoed in the Gulf of Salonika, and lost ten of our nurses and twenty of our men, but were wonderfully fortunate in saving all our officers. The other troops on board lost more heavily, as they lost 167 all told out of about 750 all told, including crew. As we were about seven hours in the water, we were very lucky to get off so easily, and especially as the boats failed so badly, and most people were saved by small pieces of wreckage and rafts. The nurses lost their lives owing to the mixup in the boats, as they all got into the boats quite quietly and in plenty of time, but the crew failed in their management of the boats,' and they proved a bit of a death trap. However, we saved about 26 out of 36; so in the circumstances we were not so badly off as we might have been. We all had life-belts, and all that were saved have lived to bless them. The patients were got up from the hospital, and waited till the boats were lowered and the order given to get into the water. I an empty boat floating astern, so I made for it to see if I could make it of some use, but when I got there it was full of water, and already had more than it could easily hold. s It had its bow staved in, so baling was useless. I had taken off my boots before getting into the water, but had my cloth tunic and trousers on, with lifebelt over all. "I got hold of a plank and held on to it and a few odd bits of wood for about an hour jnd a half, but left, as there were three others on it, and one of our men who been knocked on the head by the explosion wasn't very fit. I finally got to the swamped boat, which was continually overturning, and stuck to it till rescued. I managed to get order and regulate the boat so it was better balanced. I kept in the middle nearly up to my neck in water and balanced it, getting all the men—about fifteen in all —on to one gunwale, as it turned over if we didn't. It was a very cold business, and we shivered a Jot, and we lost a few from exhaustion, but when picked up most of us were quite fit, and I could have held on very much longer. It was beginning to get dark, however, so it was just as well the destroyers came. We were hit just after 9 a.m. and were picked up between 4 and 5 p.m. so we had our share of it. It all seemed so hopeless at first, as we were about fifteen miles from land and over fifty from Salonika, but when we saw steamers in the distance we were quite hopeful, even though the trawlers we saw first passed away without seeing us. Poor Miss Rattray, of Dunedin, was drowned amongst the sisters, as you will, know. Three of my Samoan ambulance boys went down, including our sergeant-major. The other two had no chance, as they were hurt by the explosion and could not get out. Of course I have lost all my kit except a tunic, a pair of shorts, a fountain pen, the little pencil father pave me, and about £2O 1 fortunately had in my pocket. I haven't any boots, but will get them in Alexandria."