MINED NEAR COAST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 November 1939, Page 5

MINED NEAR COAST

I ' ♦ FATE OF THE DESTROYER GIPSY PROMPT RESCUE EFFORTS. VESSEL BEACHED IN SHALLOW WATER. By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright. LONDON. November 22. Violent explosions offshore on Tuesday night attracted hundreds of people to the east coast, from which they saw the stricken destroyer Gipsy sinking. Huge volumes of smoke hung over the scene, and when they cleared away searchlights from the land and from naval vessels revealed the sea dotted with swimmers and floating wreckage. Small boats quickly picked up the survivors and more than 100 were landed during the night. One vessel anchored close to the scene and picked up 30 survivors, who came singing into port, wearing all kinds of clothing, from dressing-gowns to bathing suits. A survivor declared that the destroyer struck amidships and when she was beached in shallow water she appeared to bo broken in half. A portion of the ship was visible above water at dawn. Before the mishap the Gipsy picked up three Germans from a collapsible boat and also rescued the crew of a ship sunk in the North Sea a few days ago. It was announced officially yesterday that twenty-one officers and men of the Gipsy were injured and that about forty ratings were missing. The Gipsy is one of eight destroyers completed in 1936. A 1350-ton ship with a speed of 35| knots, she mounts four 4.7-inch guns and two half-inch machine-guns. She is also equipped with two quadruple torpedotubes. Her complement numbered 145. She is the second destroyer to strike a German mine since the outbreak of the war.