BRITISH SHIP SUNK

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22436, 24 June 1938, Page 11

BRITISH SHIP SUNK

BOMBED BY REBEL AIRCRAFT EARLY MORNING RAID AT VALENCIA MACHINE-GUN FIRE SWEEPS DECKS (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION —COPYRIGHT.) (Received June 23, 2 p.m.) LONDON, June 22. The British steamer Thorpeness and the Greek steamer Sunion were bombed and sunk by rebel aeroplanes in an early morning raid on Valencia.

The Thorpeness wa's previously bombed on January 20 at Tarragonna, when seven members of the crew were killed. Captain Ormode, the skipper of the Thorpeness, in an interview, said: “I was standing on the bridge when an aeroplane swooped down and a bomb hit the ship amidships, shattering the port side boat and ripping out the steamer’s side. Twenty-five members of the crew scrambled into the other boat. I, with the remainder, leapt into the water with lifebelts and swam for three hours, when the Sunion picked us up and set us ashore. I had scarcely landed when the Sunion was struck “It is an outrage, that, after bombing the ship, an aeroplane circled the Thorpeness and machine-gunned the decks. The Thorpeness was anchored miles from the wharves preparatory to unloading a cargo of grain. A Chinese member of the crew is missing.” An insurgent war aeroplane circled over the British merchantman African Trader off the east coast of Spain and by wireless ordered her to go to Palma. The captain sent out an SOS and the British destroyer Imogen raced to protect the ship. It is reported that the same aeroplane sank a British ship, believed to be the Gloxinia, five miles from Valencia. Captain Bailey, master of the British vessel Stanwold, which the insurgents previously captured on September 8, 1937, has reported to the authorities at Gibraltar that while going to Spain an armed trawler hailed him and demanded the name cf the ship and the destination, which were supplied. After he had altered his course for Gibraltar, the trawler fired several shots across the vessel’s bows without hitting the Stanwold.

More than 100 bombs were dropped on Barcelona early this morning, causing heavy casualties in the working class districts.