SINKING OF A TRANSPORT.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1917, Page 6

SINKING OF A TRANSPORT.

NURSES' HEROIC CONDUCT. Melbourne, June 11. Additional stories of the scenes at the sinking of the British transport Transylvania, which was torpedoed in the Mediterranean on May 4 with the loss'of 412 soldiers and sailors, have been published. One of the survivors narrates the harrowing experience of the nurses in the first boat away from the ship. With rruout oO or GO persons the boat was being lowered, when it) was discovered that there was no ere\y. Three soldiers and two sailors were 4hen put into the boat, and eventually, after some difficulty it got clear of the ship. In the heavy sea, however, the almost inexperienced «re\v found it impossible to make the shore, three miles distant The boat shipped seas continually and also leaked badly. The narrator of the story says tho nurses in the boat were tlie bravest women he has ever seen—they never whiniperd, and they even helped at the oars. The boat gradually filled. The occupants of this boat saw a destroyer ,50 alongside the Transylvania. The submarine's second torpedo missed the destroyer, but it settled the fate of the Transylvania. Those in the boat •saw men on board the transport climb to the highest point on the ship and drop overboard as the liner plunged under. The sinking of tho ship sent out a great wave, which swaiupcd the nurses' boat. All the occup'fints clung to the submerged boat for five hours when a destroyer picked them up in an exhausted stat'