ONLY FIVE MISSING

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20153, 24 January 1940, Page 7

ONLY FIVE MISSING

ITALIAN LINER FIRE LIFEBOATS SWEPT AWAY LIKE GIGANTIC TORCH MEDITERRANEAN BLAZE (Reed. Jan. 24, 9 a.m.) LONDON, Jan. 22. It is now officially stated that five persons are still missing from the Italian liner Orazio, which was destroyed by fire 100 miles from Barcelona. A message from Genoa says that 12 Italian seaplanes, five liners, two warships and a mine-sweeper co-operated in the rescue of the passengers and. crew from the Orazio, which is now reported to have been abandoned. She is drifting, on fire from stem to stern, in the storm-swept Mediterranean.

A seaplane flying over the ship reported that she is a gigantic torch, the oil from the bunkers feeding the flames. The mainmast has fallen overboard and a lofty pillar of flame is shooting up from the poop. The owners, in the latest statement, say that the ship carried 417 passengers and 218 of a crew. Five engineers are believed to have been killed by an explosion in the engineroom. Three crowded lifeboats were swept away and lost in the darkness.

The Paris correspondent of the Daily Mail says that French warships, Italian and French seaplanes were still searching at midnight for lifeboats containing many women and children. These were later located and the members of the crew who were trapped by the original explosion are the only ones now missing.

French circles in London revealed f hat a French auxiliary cruiser stopped the Orazio before the fire and took off eight Germans. Later she received an SOS and played a prominent part in the rescue.