MORE SHIPS SUNK

Grey River Argus, 20 January 1940, Page 7

MORE SHIPS SUNK

FOUR BY MINES Holland Laying up Ships [Aust. & N.Z. ' Cable Assn.] AMSTERDAM, January 18. The United Dutch Shipping Company intends to suspend its services to Africa and India, placing out of commission 25 largq ships. COPENHAGEN, January 18. The German steamer, August Thyssen, was sunk in. the Swedish minefield off the Aaland Islands. The steamer tried to traverse the minefield without a.pilot. The crew took to' the boats, which are drifting southwards amid mass is of broken ice. A Swedish warship is trying to reach them.

LONDON, -January 18. A U-boat torpedoed and shelled the Norwegian steamer Enid, on the north-east coast of Scotland. A trawler rescued eight of the crt)w The remaining eight landed in their own small boat.

The Cairncross struck a mine on the west coast of England in the daikness last night. A warship picked up the crew of forty-eight, after three hours in their lifeboats’ The Greek steamer, Asteria, sank, after striking a mine in the North Sea. Eleven members of the crew and the English pilot, are feared to have been drowned. Eleven survivors and one body were landed, after being fifteen hours in a small boat. Oslo reports that fourteen of the crew of the vessel; Fqgerheim, which was torpedoed in the' Bay of Biscay were killed. Five' of the six of those rescued were injured. Asked in the Commons as to whether, in view of. the -danger to local fishermen resulting' from the practice of sinking unexploded mines by rifle-fire, other measures would be taken, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty (Mr. Shakespeare) replied: “Special ships art being fit ted out for. blowing up floating mines, and these. ,ships will work, in the areas where most of the floating mines are tp be. found. It.is. essential that patrol craft should continue to sink floating mines by rifle-fire, as a mine on the surface is a menace to shipping.” BURNT TANKER’S IDENTITY (Received January 19, 10.50 p.m.) LONDON, January 19. An oil tanker which was in flames on the south-west coast of Britain on Tuesday last, was the Inverdargle. Her identity was previously un46 Men Lost IN BRITISH TANKER (Received January 2,0, 1.33 a.m ) f . I . LON P ON , January 19. Ihe families of forty-six men from the oil tanker Inverdargle, wfcich was sunk.on the south-west coast, after being afire, have been informed that tney are missing and are believed to have been lost.

The owners of the tanker say that, the victims included nine engineers .four officers, and one wireless operand £rom ScotJ and Sv nf hof England - The maIndians ft le rema,nder we rc West

30 MEN SAVED From British Submarines (Received January 19, 10.40 p.m.) T . • zn BER LIN, January 18. It is officially stated that four officers and twenty-six men were saved from the sunken British submarines “Undine” and “Starfish.”

COLUMBUS CREW Return to Germany Stopped ARE NAVAL UNITS WAITING? Th o i OAKLa ND, January 18. lhe plan to embark 512 officers anti members of the crew of the scuttled German liner Columbus on the JanSS* Tatuta M ' aru ' ,ias ners, asserted to be comprised of two Australian and one Canadian The r 6 lying Off the Golden Gate, ed at ST™ 1 " 8 are tem P orar dy housIsland t T h f e - quai \ antl fe station, Angels island. It is understood that they are Sort to g th ater t in SmaH groups - in an £ ffort to thwart a general capture (Received January 19,. n.m D m . OAKLAND (California); P kt , January 18. No large vessels are 'scheduled to sail for a fortnight, and the United crew t? pe . rm i ttin e the Columbus crew to remain here. 57 MEN SAIL FOR GERMANY. NEW YORK, January 18. lifty-seven members of the crew of the scuttled German liner Columbuwho are over military age, cabin boys and a stewardess, sail for Germany in the Rex. SPRAYING THE DEAD. . RUGBY, January 18. Captains of British merchant vessels who were prisoners on board the German battleship Graf Spee, at the time of the action off the River Plate who have just returned to England’ state that, after the battle, German dead were laid out on the deck, and the corpses were sprayed with a very strong disinfectant, having a pungent offensive odour. A great part of the ship was also treated, in this way. British prisoners on board the Graf Spee, however, aver that no suggestion of the possible use of gas shells was made, even by the most inexperienced men on board the Graf Spee