LOST ON THE TORPEDOED WARILDA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 21, 19 October 1918, Page 8

LOST ON THE TORPEDOED WARILDA

.■ $- HOW MBS. LONG DIED.

A thrilliug narrative of the torpedoing of the ambulance- transport Warilda is told'by Miss Charlotte Trowell, W.A.A.0., who was,acting as orderly , to Mrs. Violet Long, the Chief Con- i trailer of Queen's Mary's Auxiliary Army Corps, who lost her life. Miss Trowell, who had come home on'special leave to be married, said that soon after she had gone to her cabin Mrs. Long came to inquire if she was com- ~ fortable and gave her some chocolates. ( She did not see her again until she was in the water. - ■, , • \ "I was thrown out of my'bunk by the shock of the explosion. A wounded American officer came and assisted,me on deck. I did not see many ! men there, but I could see many who had been thrown into the water through the capsising of the boats. It was a sad and unnerving sight. I was help-! Ed into a boat which was .filled witli wounded soldiers, and it 'was lowered; down,; but as the Warilda sank the boat became so lopsided that the ropes of the davits had to be cut quickly.' • The boat oapsized as soon • as it reached the water and I was pitched into the sea. I clung to a rope and was pulled ■ into another boat by an American and an Australian. I shall ever remember the sacrifice 'and unselfishness of the poor wounded in wrapping me in their saturated blankets. Every survivor of those soldiers deserves the Victoria Cross. : ' •■■ ■ ■ •

"Drowning men clung to one another in the wnter and their cries could be.- frequently heard. While I sat in tho boat with my feet in tho water someone said, 'That is a woman,' and I saw Mrs. Long clinging to our. boat and heard her murmur, 'Oh, save me.' She.had become entangled in some repe. Efforts to free her were successful and I caught hold cf her hair to hold her up, and she said, 'You are hurting me.' Her grip suddenly loosened and she collapsed and fell'back into the,sea. I-felt like collapsing also at the sight, for she had been very kind to mo, but I took courage from the fortitudo of tho suffering and dying mon round me.- Strange though it may seem,.(the- thought;.uppermost, in my mind was that I should have liked workers who str.iko in war time to be there to witness the scene. While I was in tho. boat we saw the wake d another torpedo. After about two houre we were picked, up by a patrol boat. An officer of the latter called out, 'The badly 'wounded cases first,' but the wounded replied, 'There is a girl in the boat. Go, on, mfss, , and thatdeßpite the sufferings these had endured."