TRANSPORT PERILS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 March 1919, Page 5

TRANSPORT PERILS.

THRILLING ADVENTURES.. STORIES BY OFFICERS AND CREW OF WAR OPAL. Auckland, March 10. Amongst the officers and crew of the steamer War Opal, which arrived yes« terday from New York, are many who have seen continuous war service and have had unique experiences while engaged in transport work in and around the EngliaJi Channel. Captain Steel, the master of the War Opal, has been mined and torpedoed four times. On one occasion he was blown out of the water by a mine.

The third engineer and Mr. Quirk, the chief officer, have also been attacked by enemy submarines. Both were on the steamer Largo Loft', engaged in carrying horses and shells to I'rance. At the time when they were attacked they bad 103 horses and 2000 tons of steel bullets for shells. The first intimation that a submarine was in the vicinity wa3 the explosion of shells, which fell around the vessel. The marksmanship of the gunners on the submarine was tad, and all the shells either fell abort or whistled harmlessly over the vessel. Altogether the submarine fired thirty-four shots, but a wireless call for help was sent out and the Government station answered that a destroyer was leaving for the scene. The submarine immediately moved off from the vessel, and the Largo Loff lay down on a zigzag course and got away. The wireless operator on the War Opal (Mr. A. Dawson) was aim attacked fov a submarine while serving with the transport Bavcnshoa, but in this case the submarine found its mark and the vessel had to be towed to port in a leaking condition and with ita third engineer killed. (i. Mangles, another member of the crew of the War Opal, was engaged in mine-sweeping for some considerable time, but was invalided out of the service last year practically blind. He stepped out on deck when a mine exploded with the result that lie suffered serious injury to his eyes.