FROZEN IN OPEN BOATS

Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 98, 25 April 1917, Page 5

FROZEN IN OPEN BOATS

♦ — 349 LAURENTIC MEN PERISH TWO NEW ZEALAND OFFICERS DEAD. (rr.ou our own correspondent.) LONDON, 13th February. The White Star liner Laurentic; taken over by the Admiralty as an auxiliary ship, arrived in port early on the morning of 25th January, and left for sea shortly after 5 o'clock in the evening. Within an hour of her departure she struck two mines, and became a hopelesa wreck. The crew numbered 475, and, with the exception of one or two men who may have been killed in the explosion, all took safely to the boats. The terrible tragedy occurred at. this point. So intensely cold was the night that when the boats were picked up no fewer than 349 men were found frozen to death. Captain R. A. Norton, who was in command, told the coroner that the ship was steaming full speed ahead, and' no h lights were showing. Then came the ex- ) plosions, first abreast of the foremast on the port side, and the second abreast of the engine-room on the port side. [ "I pub the telegraph 'Full speed ' astern,' " he said, "fired a rocket, gave > the order to turn out the boats, and tried to send a wireless call for help, but found it could not be done owing to the second explosion, which occurred in the , engine-room, having stopped the.dynamo ; and left the ship in darkness. All the ■ men got away safely in the boats. The i best of order prevailed after the explosion. Officers and men lived up to the . best traditions of the Navy. About fortyfive minutes after the explosion, before ■ leaving.the ship, I went around the vesi sel below in company with Mr. Porter, • the chief steward, who had an electric torch, and satisfied myself that .there I were no more men in the ship. The • vessel was then very low in the water, i and the .officer in charge of the boat which'l had ordered to wait for me having lowered her into the water, I decided to abandon the ship. At that time the \ ship was sinking, and the boat was bump- t ing dangerously alongside, being on the weather side. I did not see the vessel sink." Tho Coroner: Were there any people ', killed on board? ' Captain Norton: It is possible that j someone was killed in the engine-room, j but I have nob been able to ascertain j owing to there being no survivors from. | the men on watch.' I know all the men got up from tho stokehold. The m«in died from exposure owing to the coldness 1 of the night. In Captain Norton's boat all the men ' survived, although full of water and not picked up till 1 o'clock the following 1 morning. An officer on the sick-list -was , ' got away, and "thero -was plenty of time j 1 for all, though some- of the men did. not ' ■ wait'to put on proper attiTe. ; The ohief naval officer of the district • said that one boat picked up the after- ' noon following tho disaster contained seventeen frozen bodies. , Another boat 1 contained five survivors out of twenty, ' the remainder basing frozen. The jury • returned a verdiot of " Death from shock' ■ and exposure." > There were at least three New Zea- j ■ landers on board, of whom two lost their ' 1 lives. Engineer Sub-Lieutenant H. C. ' Hurley (Nelson) is in London, but Engi--1 neer Lieutenant-Commander Georgo R. ■ Rutledge, R.N.R., and Sub-Lieutenant ■ Laurence W. Bell, R.N.R., were lost. '' An ex-student of the School of Engi--1 neering, Canterbury College, Engineer ■ LieutenaJit-Commander Rutledge was one ' ' of the sons of Mr. C. Rutledge, of St. ' Albans, New Zealand.. He had been an engineer on board the lonic and the > Cedric, and when war was declared he • was transferred to H.M.S. Teutonic as ' engineer-lieutenant. His further promo- ' tion came lasi October. Sub-Lieutenant L.- W. Bell, R.N.R., joined the N.Z.E.F-. in the early days of '■ the'war, and served in the Field Ambu- ' lanco as a private, his number being | 3/485. On 27th-November last he was > granted his discharge in order to take a J commission in the Royal Naval Reserve.