TRAGEDY OF THE SEA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 6 May 1925, Page 9

TRAGEDY OF THE SEA.

DOOMED JAPANESE SHIP. HOMERIC CAPTAIN’S ACTION. NEW YORK, April 23. The division of opinion among the passengers of the Homeric is about equal as to whether Captain Roberts upheld the beet British' traditions when he failed to rescue the crew of the Japanese steamer Raifuku Mam, which foundered with all hands on Halifax. Captain Roberts said: “It would have been madness to launch, boats in such terrible seas. During 40 years at sea I never witnessed such a horribles marine disaster. ’ ’ Mr. Paul Alberti, a passenger, said : “If the rafts had been launched from the Homeric and allowed to drift toward the Japanese ship a few men might have been, saved. The Rev. Janies Talbot, of St, Patrick’s Cathedral, who prayed with bared head on deck as the Japanese drowned, thought that Captain Roberta did eveything possible. “I finally saw 20 Japanese heads and shoulders a.s they made a last istand on the bridge before they disappeared,’’ he said. “It was most tragic. Thle rigging and smoke-stack were dipping into the water, and the heavy seas often hid them from sight; and the same waves splashed right; over the Homeric. Our shin non-red oil on the water to calm it, and we went so close that a collision was imminent. We were only 200 yards* away.” Another passenger said that Captain Roberts would have been a murderer if he had sent boats out.