A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 68, 22 March 1919, Page 14

A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE

An indication of the terrible privations to which a number of shipwrecked seamen must have been subjected during the war is given in a letter sent by a member of the crew of the steamer Serapis, which was torpedoed off the West Coast of Ireland some time ago. The writer says:—"The vessel was torpedoed amidships on the starboard side, and sank in about 40 seconds. Immediately the explosion occurred a rush was raado to get the port lifeboat away, but, owing to the vessel's heavy list to starboard, this was rendered quite impossible. We all then took to the water, clinging hold of planks and other pieces of wreckage. After the ship had disappeared, the submarine came to the surface, and took on board as prisoners the master and mate. She then steamed away, leaving tho rest of us to die like a lot of rats. Fortunately, I happened to get on to a portion of the bridge, out of which I constructed a rough raft, and on which I took four men. One man and the third engineer were some distance away holding on to a plank. After a time both these men disappeared. By nightfall the cries and moans around us had ceased, and we drifted slowly away from the scene of horror, at tho mercy of the waves. Next morning our raft capsized, which resulted in the deaths of three men. Shortly after this happened the other man left with me went mad- and died. Drenched to the skin, and numbed with cold, my feelings can be imagined. However, I managed to keep np my spirits, and at three in the afternoon I was picked up by H.M. Submarine E32, and next morning was landed at Killybags, Ireland.