SUNK BY U-BOAT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20861, 13 August 1942, Page 3

SUNK BY U-BOAT

BRITISH CARRIER 22-YEAR-OLD EAGLE MOST OF CREW RESCUED (British Official Wireless.) (11 a.m.) RUGBY, Aug. 12. The Admiralty announces that the aircraft carrier Eagle was s^ k J* s di ® result of a U-boat attack in the Mediterranean. At least one U-boat operating in the same area as the Eagle has already been sunk. It was later announced that there were 930 survivors of the Eagle, including Captain L. - Mackintosh, t>7 officers, and 862 other ratings. The Eagle was one of the oldest ships in the Royal Navy. She was laid down in 1913 as a battleship to the order of the Chilean Government. She lay on the stocks until 1917 when negotiations were completed for her purchase and conversion into an aircraft carrier. She was completed for preliminary trials in 1920, but was not commissioned until 1924, when she went to the Mediterranean. She was refitted in 1933 and went to the China station, but returned to the Mediterranean two years later and in 1J35 was placed in reserve. She returned to the China station in 1937, but again returned to the Mediterranean. With a displacement of 23,600 tons, she rode light and high out of the water. She was 667 ft. long and 105 ft. wide. Her peace-time complement was about 750 and she carried '2l aircraft. Fighting French naval headquarters announce that the submarine chaser Reine has been sunk by enemy action.