SEA DRAMA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 October 1940, Page 4

SEA DRAMA

HEROISM ON EMPRESS OF BRITAIN NO PANIC UNDER GRIM ORDEAL. WOMEN & CHILDREN CALM. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) LONDON. October 28. Survivors from the liner Empress of Britain who reached port yesterday said there was no panic when the bombs exploded, though it was feared some people were killed.. Women and children calmly obeyed instructions to stay below after the liner had been hit. A number of people got away in some of the boats immediately, and of the remainder about 300 managed to make their way to the forecastle, from which most of them were not taken off till nearly six hours after the attack. Because of the rapidity with which the flames spread some of the lifeboats put off with only four men in them, and these boats had to be towed back to the blazing liner by a motorboat to take off passengers. Another survivor says that as soon as the bombing began 40 or 50 people lay down on deck. Lights in this part of the ship went out, and they made their way forward by the light of torches. The captain manoeuvred the vessel so that the forward part would be free of flames. The Empress of Britain was the flagship of the Canadian Pacific fleet, and was known in many parts of the world. The King and Queen returned to England on her after their tour of Canada and the United States last year. Sir Edward Beatty, in a statement, said that the ship met her end gallantly in the service of the country. Though they sorrowed in the loss of members of the crew, he said, those members had gone to their death with their faces grimly turned toward duty as was the manner of British seamen.