CANTABRIA’S ORDEAL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 November 1938, Page 5

CANTABRIA’S ORDEAL

SHELLED FOR TWO HOURS & A HALF

CAPTAIN’S DRAMATIC STORY. FEARS FOR CAPTURED SHIPMATES. By Telegraph—ri-ess Association—Copyright. LONDON, November 3. “I shudder to think what will happen to my shipmates aboard the Nadir,” declared Captain Ardulles, whose ship, the Cantabria, was shelled and sunk off the coast of Norfolk yesterday by the Spanish insurgent auxiliary Nadir, in an interview today. He was standing with his wife on the cliffs overlooking the scene of the action. “It/ is difficult to outline our nightmare,” he said. “It was a hot two and a half hours, but nothing would induce us to surrender. One shell shot awtiy the bridge and smashed the wheel. The helmsman raced for my wife. I had control of the ship when it was sinking, and implored my wife to leave with the children, but she replied: 'I would rather die than be taken by the insurgents.’ ” Mrs Ardulles, speaking in Spanish, repeatedly exclaimed. “Terrible, terrible.”

The Cantabria was located in 15 fathoms of water 10 miles from the coast.

Numerous telegrams have been received by the Cromer lifeboat men, who rescued some of the crew, expressing the warmest praise of their gallantry. The steamer Pattersonian. which took off other members of the crew, arrived at Gravesend today. She was formerly an armed merchantman, and sank a German submarine in the North Sea during the Great War. There are no signs of wreckage on the Norfolk coast. Captain Ardulles and his family have gone to Yarmouth to join the surviving members of their crew. There is no trace of those who were reported to have been picked up by the Nadir.

OFFICIAL REPORT. NO VIOLATION OF TERRITORIAL WATERS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, November 3. In answer to a question in the House of Commons regarding the shelling of the Cantabria, it was made clear that, on the receipt of the news from the steamer Monkwood, instructions were immediately sent to his Majesty’s ships nearest to the scene to proceed to the spot with a view both to rendering any assistance to the crew of the vessel attacked and ensuring that the armed auxiliary took no action inside British territorial waters. No violation of Biitish territorial waters occurred.