A NARROW ESCAPE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2620, 16 November 1915, Page 3

A NARROW ESCAPE

ORONTES AND A SUBMARINE. Among the passengers to arrive here yesterday from Sydney was Mr. P. C. Corliss, Secretary for Stamps. Mr. Corliss made the passage from London to Sydney by the Orient liner Orontes, and in making the trip through the Mediterranean, great was tho surprise of all on board to learn one morning that they had had a providential escape from destruction by a German submarine. It appears that at about 5.30 a.m. tho officer in charge had seen a vessel right ahead in trouble, and judged her to be undergoing a bombardment from a vessel that could not bo seen. The officer countod seventeen shots, and then the vessel blew up, evidently torpedoed. The course of the Orontes was at once changed, and as they steamed at full speed in the opposite directioai to where the' submarine was known to be, the news of the presence of the hostile vessel jvas flashed to the Navy by wireless, and instructions were recoived as to which course to pursue. "On that occasion," said Mr. Corliss, "the Orontes did her nineteen knots. She had. never been known to do' it since hor trial, but she did out through it that <hy, and after it was all over presentations were made to the stokers, who had worked literally as though

their lives depended on it, and a testimonial was presented to the captain for the cool manner in which he had" Ivndled

the ship. Had it not been that the EVench steamer was ahead of üb, we would have got it for sure. It would have been awful, for we had over 700 passengers on board, and of those 75 per cent, were women and children. • "The vessel that had been sunk by the German submarine turned out to be the Admiral Hainelin, a French steamer of 5000 tons gross .register. We heard afterwards that her crew had been picked up that same craning at about past five. That is about as near aa we got to trouble, and wo didn't want it any closer!"