INDISCRIMINATE SINKINGS

Evening Star, Issue 23492, 5 February 1940, Page 7

INDISCRIMINATE SINKINGS

NAZI CAMPAIGN AT SEA ORDEAL OF GREEK SEAMEN LONDON, February 3. The chief engineer of the Greek vessel Eleni Stathatos declared: “We should not have been sunk, as we were a neutral ship bound without cargo for a neutral port. I saw the second mate jump into the sea. Another bit himself in an attempt to suck blood to quench his thirst. He also tried to bite others. One who lost the power of speech poked out his shrunken tongue, collapsed, and died. Wo did not see a British naval vessel or aeroplane the whole time. They told us to keep to that route, and surely they could have guarded it. The Greek flag was painted on both sides of the ship and the flag astern was illuminated by spotlight. We could not have survived another night.” Fourteen of the survivors are in bed in hotels and houses, and six are in hospital in an Irish village, SWEDISH LOSSES THIRTY-ONE VESSELS TO DATE LONDON, February 3. The loss on January 31 of the Swedish steamer Fram (2,491 tons) in the North Sea by mine or torpedo brings the losses of Swedish ships since the outbreak of war to 31, with a tonnage of about 6,000. The sailors killed number 205. Nineteen of the Fram’s crew are missing. Five who landed at a Scottish port clung to the wreckage for 14 hours. Eight survivors of the Vidar (Swedish; 2,104 tons), which was sunk on January 1, have landed at Stavanger (Norway), They say the ship was bombed from the air, not mined. Sixteen perished. The whole crew took to a lifeboat, which capsized, drowning eight. The remainder returned to the Vidar, from which eight then left on a raft. The others went down with the ship. A Danish ship picked up those on the raft.