LOSSES AT SEA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 January 1940, Page 5

LOSSES AT SEA

SUFFERING AMONG NEUTRAL CREWS MEN DIE FROM EXPOSURE. I SURVIVOR’S TERRIBLE ORDEAL ON RAFT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, January 24. A message from Antwerp states that the Belgian steamer Meuse (726 tons) is feared lost. A raft with four bodies, including that of the skipper, was found, all the men having died from exposure.

Parched, frost-bitten, and semidelirious, Stigant Bergstrom, a survivor of the Swedish steamer Foxen. which was sunk in the North Sea, landed after four days adrift on a raft surrounded by corpses. His sole subsistence was a tin of salt beef which he opened with an iron nail. A search steamer missed the nine castaways in the darkness.

The cook and a mess boy froze to death and their bodies were thrown overboard and a fireman, maddened by drinking sea water, followed. A steam trawler 50 yards away failed to hear the cries of two brothers, who then died. Bergstrom awoke, and saw his own brother in the sea, but was powerless to save him. His last two shipmates succumbed three hours before the arrival of the rescue steamer, the Leka. A Spanish trawler has rescued from a lifeboat 10 missing members of the crew of the Greek steamer Ekatontarchos Dracoulis.

An Oslo report states that the Norwegian shipping losses to date are 32 vessels of 111.994 tons deadweight, and 150 men killed.

DISTORTED CLAIMS CONTROL IN NAVAL PRACTICE WILD GERMAN ASSERTIONS. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January 24.

With the loss of H.M.S. Grenville and Exmouth, the British destroyer losses in the war have been brought in all to something just over 2 per cent of the total number of her destroyers in existence at the outbreak —that is to say, not including construction since that date. The frankness with which the losses' have been announced by the Admiralty offers a contrast to the German practice. Apart from the loss of the Admiral Graf Spee, which could not be concealed, and the statement, for which credence could scarcely have been expected, that three German submarines were lost in the first three months of the war, Germany has announced no naval losses whatever. The German Press and broadcasts in foreign languages continue to proclaim that the losses of British oil tankers have been very heavy. Sinkings of more than 20 British tankers have been claimed.

A list of British ships alleged to have been sunk was published in the “Bremer Zeitung” on December 29. This list contained the names of 20 or more so-called British tankers which Germany claimed to have sunk. Six of the vessels shown as tankers were ordinary cargo vessels and not tankers at all —namely, the Rio Claro, the Gartavon, the Aviemore, the Kafiristan, the A'kenside, and the Horsted. These ships total about 20,000 tons gross. The same list claimed as having been sunk the tankers Appalachee, Tornus, and Abbeyvale. These ships, which total some 25,000 tons gross, are all safe. The coastal tanker Africa Shell (706 tons) is shown in the list as of 7060 tons. She was sunk by the great guns of the 10,000-ton battleship Admiral Graf Spee.

SCUTTLING OF SHIPS SHOULD NAVY SAVE CREWS? QUESTION RAISED IN HOUSE OF COMMONS. RUGBY, January 24. Sir William Davison in the House of Commons asked the First Lord of the Admiralty, Mr Churchill, whether his attention had been called to the growing practice in the German navy and mercantile marine of scuttling ships in order to evade capture, relying on the British navy to save and land the crews notwithstanding the fact that the shipwreck was deliberately caused, and whether, having regard to the loss of captured tonnage thereby caused to the Allies, notice would be given to Germany that in future Britain could not be responsible for saving the lives and personnel of such German ships.

Mr Churchill, replying, said that the Admiralty was aware of the practice and added, "Special orders have been given to His Majesty’s ships with a view to frustrating these attempts.” Sir William Davison's question, and a supplementary one asking whether Mr Churchill was aware of the many cases of crews of scuttled ships being picked up with their belongings carefully packed, showing how deliberate the scuttling had been and that the crews expected their luggage as well as themselves to be landed safely in British ports, caused Vice-Admiral Taylor to interject, “I hope the suggestion in. the original question will not be carried out.”

NAVAL VOLUNTEERS PARTY FROM NEWFOUNDLAND. SECOND CONTINGENT REACHES ENGLAND. One hundred and seventy men from Newfoundland have arrived in England. They are the second contingent of naval volunteers, and will join the crews of mine-sweepers. The majority are fine seamen who have been trained in the hard school of the Newfoundland fisheries. They are now proceeding to several ports in the British Isles for training.—By radio. MORE VICTIMS NEUTRAL SHIPS SUNK. SURVIVORS REACH LAND. (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) LONDON, January 25. The Swedish steamer Patria UlBB

tons) has been mined and sunk in the North Sea. Four survivors from the crew of 21 were landed at a Swedish port.

The Finnish steamer Onto has been mined in the North Sea. The crew of 18. including an Englishman, were rescued from a lifeboat and landed at a British north-east port. GRENVILLE CASUALTIES SIXTY-EIGHT NOW BELIEVED LOST. (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) LONDON. January 25. The Admiralty has announced that the number of the destroyer Grenville’s missing and feared dead is 68. not 73 as previously stated. LIFEBOATS LOCATED SURVIVORS FROM THE NAUTIC. (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) OSLO, January 25. A lifeboat picked up one of the Nautic’s boats, containing a woman and ten men. A second Nautic lifeboat. containing one woman and eleven men, including the captain and chief officer, have arrived near Christiansund. DEAD AND LIVING RESCUED CREW FROM BIARRITZ. (Received This Day. 9.50 a.m.) AMSTERDAM. January 25. The Norwegian steamer Borgholm landed at Ijmuiden 17 of the Biarritz's survivors and 3 bodies. The Biarritz was mined and sunk off Ijmuiden. 1