FIRST REPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 April 1943, Page 3

FIRST REPORT

OF JAPANESE SUBMARINE NEAR MELBOURNE LOSS OF ALLIED VESSEL. SURVIVORS PICKED UP FROM RAFT. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, April 13 The survivors of the Allied vessel which was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine off the Australian coast have arrived at an Australian port. The loss of the vessel was reported in General MacArthur’s communique yesterday. Some of the crew were rescued clinging to a raft and to wreckage. The sinking of the vessel occurred within a few hours’ journey of the port of Melbourne, it was stated officially today. Japanese submarines have not been previously in the waters in this area. The captain was among those who are believed to 'have gone down with the ship. Five Australian and three Allied sailors who were rescued were a little more than an hour on a raft before they were picked up. They were almost naked and were drenched, and some were badly bruised. The sea on which they were drifting was littered with wreckage. A 17-year-old trimmer, lan Peter Kilowsky, Adelaide, said he had been at sea since he was 15, and he had served in five ships, two of which had gone down under him. Several of the seamen lost sums of money up to £5OO when the ship was sunk.