RAIDER’S TOLL

Evening Star, Issue 23745, 28 November 1940, Page 9

RAIDER’S TOLL

SHIPS SUNK OFF AUSTRALIAN COAST DNE BOATLOAD DF SURVIVORS ESCAPE WOMAN AMONG PRISONERS TAKEN CANBERRA, November 28. (Received November 28, at 2 p.m.) The Minister of the Navy, Mr W. M. Hughes, announced last night that an enemy raider five days ago sank the Port Brisbane and probably the Maimoa off the Australian coast. Twenty-seven members of the crew of the Port Brisbane reached an Australian port aboard an Australian warship. The remainder of the crew are believed to be prisoners aboard the raider, which escaped. An empty lifeboat from the Maimoa was picked up, and it is presumed that the crew of the ship are prisoners on the raider. The Port Brisbane was attacked at night in mid-ocean. The wireless apparatus was disabled and the steering gear put out of action. The vessel was time-bombed and torpedoed. Those who reached Australia escaped under cover of darkness. Among the personnel of the Pori Brisbane taken prisoner on the raider is a woman passenger. Survivors from the Port Brisbane told a dramatic story of their escape in a lifeboat. The raider opened fire at a range of little more than a mile. The third shell wrecked the wireless room, and the fourth hit; the bridge, disabling the steering gear. Three boats were launched, and the ship was abandoned. The occupants of two boats were taken prisoner, but the third escaped in the darkness. The official description of the raider tallies remarkably with earlier descriptions given by the Admiralty of a German raider known for identification purposes as the “ Narvik,” which has already probably sunk 67,641 tons Of shipping.