GRIM ACCOUNTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 September 1939, Page 3

GRIM ACCOUNTS

TORPEDOING OF ATHENIA SURVIVORS REACH HALIFAX. PASSENGERS TERRIBLE ORDEAL. NEW YORK, September 13. American survivors of the Athenia who arrived at Halifax aboard the City of Flint today corroborated the statement that the liner was shelled after having been torpedoed. American newspapers publish at length grim accounts of the torpedoing and stories of death at sea and the privation of the passengers in open boats. Some survivors say the submarine also tried to upset the lifeboats. Mr C. O. Bowen, • Vancouver, said: ‘The submarine came up under us and tried to upset number one of four lifeboats. It later pulled away and fired at least two shots at the Athenia. Mrs McMillan Wallace, Ontario, an eyewitness of the torpedoing, said it was without warning. A boy in the crowsnest shouted out. I looked over the side and saw a periscope 200 yards away and a white streak of foam. Then I heard a crash. I could not get a lifebelt as the stairs were blasted away.’ Many of the 223 survivors were near collapse after a rough nine-day voyage across the North Atlantic on a freighter built to carry six passengers Women’s hands were blistered from hours of rowing. Miss Mary Humlong, Texas, said that when the sea became rough the after their rescue the passengers started screaming at every noise and became hysterical in the holds, some shouting that they were being torpedoed. John Hayworth, of a fen* year-old girl, who died from head injuries aboard the City of Flint, was first aboard. His wife ran up and said: ‘Deal’ God John, she’s gone.” The two clung together sobbing and were then lost in the crowd jamming the decks.