SANK IN FIFTEEN MINUTES

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 92, 12 January 1940, Page 9

SANK IN FIFTEEN MINUTES

Destruction Of Dunbar

Castle

PASSENGER’S STORY OF ORDEAL

It is stated in London at the office of the Union Castle Line that there is still some doubt whether four or six members of the crew of the Dunbar Castle are missing. There were 48 passengers on board, including nine children, and all are accounted for except one, an; army officer. As the survivors were landed at different ports there is still a possibility that he and the missing members of the crew may still be saved.

The Dunbar Castle bad just left port when she struck the mine, and the pilot was still on board. She received the full force of the explosion amidships sank in 15 minutes. She was laden with food from New York. Mr. iS. A. Jones, Johannesburg, one of the survivors, gave an account of the explosion and the sinking of the liner.. At about 2.15 p.m., he said, he was in the lounge playing cards. Most of the passengers were down below in their calbins. They had just had lunch. There wars a terrific crash and all the lights went out. He grasped the girl he was playing cards with at the time. He knew there were lifebelts stored at the top of the stairs and he managed to get one for each of them. Then they went out on deck on the starboard side. All this took less than half a minute. His boat station was on the port side, but the terrific slope of the deck made it difficult to get there. He managed to give one or two others help, and eventually they got to their station. There were other people there waiting and looking, he thought, nonchalant, though very white. It was obvious, even to his inexperienced eye, he continued, that the boats could not be launched on that side. He made for the other side and asked the officer in charge for instructions. The officer told him to take any boat he could. The boats were lowered to the level of the promenade deck and they started to help each other in. The boats were then lowered into the water. Just then there was a terrific rush of water into the ship itself, and that made it very difficult for them to get their boat away. Finally they managed to get away from the side of the ship, and then for the first time he was able to look at the ship. He saw that the bridge had been smashed completely in and that the foremast had vanished. By this time it was about 10 minutes since the explosion. They moved away from the ship’s side and suddenly he bear'd —it was not a groan or rending—just a horrible dull sound and they saw the ship’s back breaking. The deck was awash and the rest of the derricks crashed overboard. The last boat had just managed to get away. There was a heavy swell and it was 'difficult for them to get out their oars, but once they started and the oars were out they got along a lot better. The boatswain and other people were in charge. Several people in his boat were in pyjamas or their underclothes and must have been terribly cold. They rowed round for an hour and 20 minutes. when they were picked up by a naval patrol boat. The officers and men of the ship were absolutely magnificent, Mr. Jones said. He could not speak too highly of them. If it had not been for the way they behaved he probably would not have been able to give an account of the sinking.—By ra'dio.

The Dunbar Castle had been less than a day at sea when she was mined amidships. The vessel broke in two and sank within 15 minutes. Most of the passengers lost all their belongings. Passengers were at a loss to find words to describe the heroism of the crew, and told of the bravery of the second officer, Mr. Saunders, who set his own broken leg while in a lifeboat on a choppy sea. 'Though suffering great pain, he never complained, and went grimly along with the setting, simultaneously directing the crew. Among those rescued were a young family, inelu'ding a baby 10 weeks old, who sold up their home in Nottingham and were going to Africa to mqjte a new home. They lost everything.— Press Association.