SUNK BY MINE

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20995, 23 December 1939, Page 9

SUNK BY MINE

JAPANESE LINER CAPTAIN’S STORY A TERRIFIC EXPLOSION (Times Air Mail Service) LONDON, Nov. 23 Captain JVXatukura, describing to me in London last night how his crack 12,000-ton Japanese liner was sunk off the East Coast at lunchtime yesterday, said he was convinced it was some kind of magnetic mine that destroyed his ship, reports the staff reporter of the Daily Express. He was proud that all his twentyseven passengers—sixteen of them British—had been saved, as well as the whole of his crew of 178, that only four people were slightly injured, that nobody got the feet wet. He said the liner had been cleared for contraband. Two naval officers came on board and delivered the routine papers and flag for her to pass into British waters. “I had five navigators on the bridge watching for mines,” said the captain. “When we left anchorage I felt secure. My lookout man saw nothing dangerous, had no warning of any sort. We were going at fifteen knots when the explosion occurred. A Deep Mine “I knew it was a mine, and I would say it was a deep mine. If it had been an ordinary floating mine at least one of my look-out men would have seen it. “There was a terrific explosion in No. 2 and No. 3 holds. The bridge was shattered. The boat began to heel over, and I directed my passengers into the lifeboats. “There were eight boats. It was forty-five minutes before we went down, plenty of time for all to be rowed well away from the sinking ship. “There was a pilot on board. He suggested when the explosion occurred that I should try to get the ship into shallow water, but the en-gine-room was flooded. So we watched our passengers and crew safely into the lifeboats, and then went along ourselves. “We got an SOS out, and a British boat answered. Just how there was a mine in this area which was marked as safe mystified us both. My own belief is that it was some sort of magnetic mine. It looked to me like one.” [the magnetic mine stays at the bottom of the sea out of reach of the sweepers until certain magnetic forces make it rise quickly ten feet below an oncoming ship. It is then drawn upwards against the weakest part of the vessel.] Great columns of water and a cloud of smoke streaking high into the air told watchers on the cliff-top in an East Coast town some miles away of the disaster. A Cool Septuagenarian Great crowds along the sea front waved to the ship’s company as they were brought ashore. They were taken to London by special train. Oldest of them was a British woman, Mrs Huntley, seventy years old. She was thrown off her feet by the explosion and badly shaken. Representatives of the owners of the mined vessel were on the London station platform with drinks, biscuits and 3000 cigarettes for distribution among the crew. “We grabbed what we could before the shops shut,” said one of them. A British naval officer greeted a slightly built, dark-haired woman, and taking her in his arms, cried: “Thank God you are safe!” She was returning in the liner from China, where she had spent the last two and a-half years while her husband has been on service there. He returned to England a fortnight ago. Mrs Helen Swailes, thirty-six-year-old wife of a chief petty officer, who lives in Aberdare, said: “I was pacing the deck with my dog Nutty, thinking that if we were struck I was at least safe on the upper deck, when there was a shattering explosion in the forward part of the ship. Nutty jumped and yapped with excitement. We were immediately ordered to our stations. There was no panic whatever. Old Mrs Huntley was magnificent. To all the passengers she said, ‘We must remain calm,’ While she was waiting to enter a lifeboat she carefully adjusted her hair. “Major Ferguson, who was from Singapore, asked me where my lifebelt was. I said ‘lt is below, in my cabin.’ He rushed downstairs and forced his way into a water-logged cabin and got one for me. Courageous Coxswain “Nutty was the first to leap into the lifeboat. We were under the care of a Japanese coxswain. I shall never forget that man’s behaviour. Although blood was streaming down his face, he gave all his orders quietly and calmly. “Within a few minutes we were taken aboard a drifter. The crew gave us rum and coffee. Nutty wagged his tail in delight when he was given some meat by the crew. “Among those injured was a member of the Japanese Embassy. As he passed me on a stretcher Jie smiled and said, ‘I am so sorry, madam.’ “Mr Whiteway, of the Colonial Office, was also injured. Twenty-five minutes after the liner was struck every boat was clear of the wreck. We watched her heel over on her side.” Kawasima, junior second engineer, said:—“The explosion flung me into the air about a foot and knocked me over. The whole time the captain stood on the bridge while the stern of the ship rose in the air and the bows went beneath the water, until the sea lapped the foot of the bridge. “Fuel oil flowed all over the en-gine-room, and sea water began to pour in. I just had time to go to my cabin and grab my overcoat and a few belongings before getting into one of the boats. The sea was quite calm.”