SINKING OF THE TOKOMARU

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2428, 6 April 1915, Page 5

SINKING OF THE TOKOMARU

THE CAPTAIN'S STORY >

GERMAN NAVAL METHODS

The question whether the steamer Tokomaru, 'the "gift ship" from New was sunk by a mine or was torpedoed is settled definitely 'by a statement by her master, Captain P. Greene, in an interview published in tiie London "Standard," that'tho-vessel W! in t or ' by a submarine.' ' " " jM e had a very successful and satisfactory run from Wellington," ho said, and experienced 110 trouble or danger fiom enemy cruisers, though, of course we did not neglect the usual precautions. Early on Sunday morning we were off the French coast, about seven miles west-north-west of Capo Antifer, n6 j r ® avre - The weather was bright and clear and the sea smooth, and the Tokomaru was steaming very slowly, as wo were expecting to piok up our pilot. In fact, at the moment when we were struck the ship was almost stationary. Torpedoed I , , 9 , ®' c loek, shortly after we had finished breakfast, I was standing on tie bridge with two of my, offioers, looking tor a pilot, when suddenly there was a terrifio explosion on the port side, slightly forward of the bridge. A tremendous column of water shot up into the air, and the ship immediately listed heavily r? P ol £ " was ob.vious in a moment that she was doomed. There was no time then to speculate as to the cause of her destruction, but in the few minutes which elapsed between the exPlosion ana the launching of the boats both my officers and myself distinctly saw the periscope of a submarine showing above the surface a little distance away on the port side, so I am perfectly certain that the Tokomaru aid not strike a mine, but was sunk by a torpedo fired from a submarine." ' You received no warning from the enemy ?

Absolutely none. Not a whisper. Not a sigu. Nor did the enemy stand by to render assistance or help in any way to save life. The submarine simply disappeared and left us. There was no panic among the crew," Captain Greene coiitmued, although not one of us knew how long the ship would remain afloat. ><o earned 110 passengers. Kr«t or< jf. r to the port operator had,managed to send off the 0.u.5.; message, though the wireless apparatus had been greatly damaged and deranged bv the force of the esploswn. Everybody, was off the ship with\r U S f^ om was struck. Is either, the officers nor' the crew were able to save any.of their beoßgings—they - lost everything save What they stood in. • • "No lives were lost, T am thankful f fi, c? e to , r l >edo struck us a little further aft probably every soul n the engine-room and stokehold would Muu f? 11 °, r . <3ro ™e<i- Beforewe tould leave the ship she'was down by alf awash ' fonvclrd decl ?6 were Last of the Clft Ship. ■p.'2®w nat , ely .there were several u-f^w'fL 6 in heard afterwards that they were sweeping for mines—and m about half an hour or so my entire crew, 57 men in all, were picked up by one of them and taken to Havre, where we received every kindness. The Tokomaru remained afloat tor an hour and a half after she wis strnck. One of the trawlers stood by until she i sank, and then placed a buoV to indicate the exact locality of the wreck. . , ..

"What helps to convince me," Captain Greene went on to say, "that we aid not strike a mine, but were: struck by a torpedo, is the fact that -some hours after.we reached Havre a British steamer—the Ikaria. was towed into the harbour • in a sinking condition'by French torpedo craft. She had been torpedoed fifteen miles west of Cape Antifer, and left to her fiito-as the lokomaru was, '

• 'By the sinking of the Tokomaru a most valuable and unusually large cargo of frozen meat—beefj mutton, and lamb—amounting to nearly 100,000 carcasses, has been sent to the bottom andlost. We also had a consicferal)]e consignment of wool on board, , s,ut perhaps the most regrettable feature' of the whole affair is that all tho clothing and other things whioh were collected in New Zealand for the Belgian refugees' have also gone , down in' the ship. The Tokomaru was known as the 'Gift jShip,' and it will •be with keen regret that New Zealanders >vill learn-that the result of their sympatheticlalifl 'philanthropic labours has been thrown away by an act of unparalleled barbarism on the part of the enemy "