A DUNEDIN MAN'S STORY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXXV, Issue 8274, 20 October 1915, Page 6

A DUNEDIN MAN'S STORY.

I ■;• . DUNEDIN, October 19. | Mr Lewin, town clerk, has received ; a. letter from his son, a member of the I Fifth Reinforcements, which states : that a transport containing Australian ■ and New Zealand troops was torpedoed. The writer states that the total casualties were 51 Australians and three Now Zealanders, including a Dunedin boy. The troopship was attacked on tho way from Alexandria to Anzac, and tho torpedoing took place at 10 a.m.

„ Mr Lewin's soy was rescued by a French destroyer. The troopship was not actually sunk, but was able to | proceed to port under her own steam. I In the course of his letter, Mr t Lewin's son says that the torpedo blew out the middle of the apartment whore ; bunks had been fitted all round the ' hold. The explosion blew the hatches and the steps leading from the hold clean off and a number of men were caught down below. A chain happened to bo hanging down from the deck above- and the men climbed up somehow or other. Everything was orderly ; on deck, so far as the soldiers were con--1 oemed. Most of the men in Mr ', Lewin's boat were thrown into the sea, :as one of the crow lowered the boat ; with a rush-while the other held on. [Mr Lewin swam away and got into another boat. Aftor picking up five or six men they made for an island, which appeared about 10 miles off. Boats, craisers and destroyers commenced to arrivo about an hour and a half after the transport was torpedoed. Mr Lewin's boat was picked up by a French destroyer about 3.30 p.m. Three Now Zeulanders belonging to the Now Zealand Headquarters staff, and about 51 Australians wore lost. The first torpedo missed the engineroom and a second missed the vessel altogether. The torpedoing is supposed to have happened about September 3.