VOLTURNO DISASTER.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 15 October 1913, Page 5

VOLTURNO DISASTER.

AN UNFORGETTABLE NIGHT. TONGUE-TIED WITH HORROR. "Times'— -' Sydney Sun' Special Cables. (Received Last Night, 5.5 o'clock.) LONDON, October 14. Further accounts of the Volturno disaster describe the night spent on the rescuing vessels as unforgettable. Some prayed for the souls in peril. All were racked with anxiety, while watching the burning vessel on the verge of a holocaust: The finest fleet of liners ever assembled in the middle of an ocean was powerless owing to the fierce wind and heavy seas. Soon after midnight the Grosser Kurfurst lowered a boat with a double crew. After fighting the waves for three hours the boat got?within speaking distance of the burning ship, but was then forced to return. The Minneapolis then put out & boat and got within hail. The officer in charge shouted to the passengers to jump, but he was apparently not heard, or. the people were hypnotised with terror, as nobody responded. The passengers were almost tonguetied with horror., seeing a hundred of their fellows engulfed, and knew that the fire was steadily gaining: They saw the rescuing "boats tossed helplessly on the angry sea. It was a hell-. The Minneapolis's boat narrowly escaped destruction from a terriffic sea, which carried off the rudder, leaving them at the mercy of the waves. Their plight was detected by aid of the searchlight, and the Carmania steamed alongside and rescued the- crew as the boat was smashed to atoms. -,ii t