WAR AT SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 November 1939, Page 5

WAR AT SEA

BODIES OF U=BOAT MEN WASHED ASHORE FRENCH SHIP TORPEDOED IN ATLANTIC. DANISH AND NORWEGIAN LOSSES. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, November 5. ’The bodies of five German sailors were found today washed up on the east coast of England. They wore submarine escape apparatus and identity discs, and presumably they perished in attempting to escape from a sunken U-boat. A U-boat torpedoed the French cargo vessel Raoule in the Atlantic. Two members of the crew were killed and 11 are missing. Thirty-three were picked up and have been landed safely. In consequence of an explosion on Friday, the Danish motor-ship Canada <ll,lOB tons) sank despite efforts by five tugs to save her. The crew of 60 took to the boats immediately after the explosion, but the captain and 13 seamen returned aboard, a lifeboat taking them off when the loss of the vessel became certain.

. Survivors of the Norwegian vessel Sig (1342 tons) were landed on the British east coast yesterday following an explosion. Others are believed to have been drowned. Some of the survivors were admitted to hospital. Most of those rescued, who were scantily clad, jumped into the water after the explosion and managed to reach some rafts, from which a British vessel picked them up three hours later. Nineteen Lascars from the Clan Chisholm, who were believed to have been lost, have now arrived at Cape Town safely. They spent two days in a lifeboat during a gale and were rescued by a passing ship. The Danish Government has interned all five survivors of the German mine patrol ship Este 701, which recently blew up off the coast. The Norwegian steamer Mim (4996 tons), which was run ashore off the Orkneys while on her way to the British contraband control station at Kirkwell, was being navigated by her master at the time. This fact is clearly established, because all boarding officers have to ask the masters of the ships whether they will consent to navigate their ships to the contraband control base. Only if the master refuses to navigate his ship does the responsibility devolve upon the naval authorities. In the case of the Mim, a signal was made from that ship to the warship which intercepted her, stating that the master had consented to navigate his ship to Kirkwall. The signal was made before the Mim and the intercepting warship parted company. The master of the Mim was also provided by the British naval authorities with a chart of the approaches to Kirkwall. The wreck appears to have been due to the fact that the master failed to appreciate the strength of the tide, though this was clearly marked on the chart. The Mim has been abandoned, her crew having been saved in a lifeboat.

GREEK STEAMER SUNK ALL MEMBERS OF CREW SAFE. (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) LONDON, November 6. Al) twenty-six members of the crew of the Greek steamer Nicolas M. Embiricos, sunk in the English Channel as the result of two explosions, were rescued in the early morning. The ship was en route to Antwerp from America, when an explosion occurred forward and the engines stopped. A second explosion followed and the crew took to the boats. One boat reached a lightship and the second drifted for six hours before being sighted by a Dutch ship.