LUSITANIA TRAGEDY

Greymouth Evening Star, 28 March 1930, Page 12

LUSITANIA TRAGEDY

LADY RHONDDA’S NARRATIVE. LONDON, Marell 13. Lady Rhondda, who was on© of the survivors of the Lusitania, tells again in the “Daily Express” the story of the tragedy which followed the launching of torpedoes by Captain Luppe, of the German submarine service. The outlines of the affair are familiar and unforgettable, but Lady Rhondda’s narrative is strangely moving. The mad, fighting rush of some of the steerage passengers for the boats is described in a detached way by Lady Rhondda. “I remember telling an American girl that I always thought a shipwreck was a well-organised affair,” she writes. “The girl answered ‘So did I, but I’ve learnt a devil of a lot in the last five minutes.’ ” Feeling that death might be easier apart from that mob of terrified humanity, Lady Rhondda went to the other side, whence no boat could be lowered owing to the list, but felt afraid of the 66ft. jump into the sea. When the sea came up to where she stood the water reached her knees and the ship sank.

“The worst moment was when I found myself deep under the water and in fear of being drawn down,” she writes. “But I reached the surface, and clung to a thin strip of board two feet in length. I was surrounded by others clinging to wreckage until a swell rose and separated us. There was no panic then. Everything happened as in dreaips. I remember looking up at the sun and feeling acutely miserable and cold and longing for unconsciousness.

“The next thing I remember was lying naked between blankets on the deck of a tiny steamer. A sailor came along, and looking at me said, “That’s better.’ Presently he took me below, saying, ‘We left you on deck because we thought you were dead, and it didn’t seem worth cumbering a cabin with you.’ One seemed to get drunk with the joy of knowing that one was alive.”