THE WAR.

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 2701, 21 April 1915, Page 4

THE WAR.

RACE FROM SUBMARINES

A BRITISH STEAMER'S ESCAPE

j A thrilling story of how tho Hull i steamship Kirkham Abbey escaped i from three German submarines whilst 1 on the way from Rotterdam to Hull ] is related in the Sheffield Daily Tele- ( graph. The vessel left Rotterdam at ' 11 o'clock on a Saturday night in j charge of Captain Ray wood. All went i Avell until just after 5 o'clock on Sun- , day morning, when the mate, Samuel , Thompson, who Avas on watch on the bridge, raised the alarm, shoiithig to ] the deck hands to extinguish lights. \ j "There is a German submarine. She 1 has just passed near us," he yelled. Captain RayAvood was summoned, j and ordered the engines full speed ! , ahead, and cA r ery engineer and fire- , man to bis post. A glaring searchlight was suddenly flashed on the '■ Kirkham Abbey's deck structure. Tho i officers and crew could then clearly , distinguish tho hull and periscope of i a submarine. Fearing a torpedo might be fired, Captain Ray wood dodged the ship about. This. disconScerfed the submarine, and the searchlight got but of focus. In* the'meantime, the Kirkham Abbey was racing through the darkness at her top j speed. Every stoker aboard piled 1 coal into the furnace. The submarine chased the Kirkham Abbey for 90 minutes, .and as the crew saAV tAvo other sets of searchlights, she Avas apparently joined by tAvo other submarines. All three tried * to reach the steamer, but failed, the Kirkham Abbey outdistancing them after a series of variations in her course. On reaching Hull, her forepart Avas severely strained through bad weather, Avhich also hampered the submarines.