BRITISH DESTROYER SUNK IN NORTH SEA.

Auckland Star, Issue 18, 22 January 1940, Page 7

BRITISH DESTROYER SUNK IN NORTH SEA.

MINE OR TORPEDO.

Tanker Goes Down While

On Trials.

NEUTRAL VESSELS LOST. United Press Aesociation.^Conyright. (Received 11 a.m.) I/)NPON, January 21. The Admiralty has announced that the destroyer Grenville was sunk by a mine or torpedo in the North Sea. Eight men arc known to have been killed and 73 whq, are missing must be presumed to have lost their livee. One hundred and eighteen officers and men have bee.n landed. The flotilla leader Grenville, Captain <!. K. Creasy, was launched in 1935. as loader of the G clase of destroyers, to which belonged the Gipsy, which was mined last November. The Grenville served in the Spanish waters during the Civil War. Survivors were landed on the east coast, where dot-tore and ambulances were waiting for the injured. Those, seriously wounded were «sent to hospital. The Danish ship Hekla (1215 tons) uua mink of the north-east coast, it is believed, by a mine. A Norwegian ship took the craw to Bergen. Within 20 minutes of leaving nn rt for lests alter refitting, thu British tanker Canon River «ank off the south-we*t coast- after an explosion. The crew of 3.» wan rescued. Many were injured, fomo having been thrown into the air and crashed down on the deck. Seventeen Drowned. The Swedish steamer Flandria (1170 tons) sank after striking two mines, nays a cable from Amsterdam. Seventeen were drowned and four rescued after two days in an open boat. The Swedish motor ship Pajala (0873 tones) was torpedoed without warning. The crew of 35 were saved and were landed at a Scottish port. A Spanish fishing boat rescued 26 persons, including a woman, from the Danish steamer Canadian Reefer (1831 tone) which was torpedoed 25 miles north-east of Cape Villano, norths eastern Spam. Flotilla leaders tn Britain'* deetroyer fleet displace between 1390 and 1540 tone, with top published speeda of between 34 and 36.5 knots. G clase destroyers displace from 1335 to 1370 tons.