SEVENTY SURVIVORS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1940, Page 5

SEVENTY SURVIVORS

FROM TWO LOST BRITISH SUBMARINES

PRISONERS IN GERMANY.

ENTIRE CREW OF SEAHORSE BELIEVED LOST.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, February 2.

It is reported from Berlin that 30 survivors from the British submarine Undine, 37 to 39 from the submarine Starfish, and 27 from the Rawalpindi, which was sunk in action against the Deutschland, are interned at Spangenberg barracks. The entire ship's company of the Seahorse, the third British submarine reported lost, is believed to have perished.

The prisoners' rations consist of potatoes, cabbage, bread, sausage and margarine.

The survivors of the U-boat which was unk in attempting to attack a convoy arrived in London on Wednesday night under a strong guard en route to an internment camp. Most of the men appeared to be in theri ’teens and practically all were bearded. ADRIFT IN ATLANTIC TERRIBLE ORDEAL OF GREEK CREW. THIRTEEN PERISH AT SEA. LONDON, February 2. Thirteen members of the crew of the Greek ship Eleni Statathos (5625 tons) died while adrift for four days in the Atlantic. The remaining 20 landed on the coast of Eire. Six, including the captain, were admitted to hospital. Members of the crew told how, when a U-boat torpedoed the Eleni Statathos, they flung a few provisions into two lifeboats and pulled away as the vessel overturned and sank. The crew in the smaller boat collapsed, but the larger boat towed her till she capsized. The larger boat rescued the occupants and got them aboard. The castaways, whose hands and feet were swollen, were so exhausted that they were unable to row even when they sighted the coast. Michael Casey, a local athlete, saw the lifeboat drifting to the shore, and raced out in a motor-boat and towed the survivors to safety. An explosion sank the Norwegian ship Fingal (2137 tons) on February 1 off Scotland. The crew was saved. Four members of the crew of the steamer Royal Crown (4364 tons) were killed when a German plane bombed and machine-gunned the vessel 20 miles off the east coast on January 30. The survivors look to the boats. Fifteen were landed from one boat and the other is believed to have capsized. Eight bodies were washed ashore. More ships were lost in January than during any month of the war so far. Neutral losses were the highest. A Netherlands newspaper has published figures pointing out that of 64 ships lost in January 36 were neutrals, 14 being Norwegian. Danish losses were 25,000 tons, or nearly a third of the British losses. —By radio.

STRICKEN LIFEBOAT BODIES OF BRITISH SEAMEN. DISCOVERY ON PORTUGUESE COAST. (Received This Day, 9.25 a.m.) LISBON, February 3. A lifeboat which ran aground on the Aveiro coast contained two bodies of British seamen. Local fishermen re-, port seeing floating wreckage and barrels. STEAMER TORPEDOED GERMANS SEIZE ESTONIAN SHIPS. LONDON, February 2. The steamer Oregon was torpedoed off Corunna. There is no news of the crew. It is reported from Stockholm that German patrol boats in the Baltic seized the Estonian cargo ships Vega and Kessu and took them to Stettin.