The Hammonia Wreck

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XII, Issue 232, 13 September 1922, Page 5

The Hammonia Wreck

SURVIVORS SAFELY LANDED. KIDFAUNS CASTLE’S SPLENDID RESCUE. NARRATIVES BY EYE-WITNEESES [By Cable.—Press Asseeiation.—Copyright.] (Received 13, 9.35 a.m.) London, Sept. 12. Bearing the Ha,mmonia’s 380 rescued passengers, the Kidfauns Castle arrived at Southampton. Captain Day, interviewed, said when he sighted the sinking ship exhausted passengers were clinging to half submerged life boats and rafts drifting about the ship. The rescue was carried out with great difficulty, owing/to the heavy seas, one lifeboat having disembarked seven rescued passengers was stove in, but all hands saved. He had not witnessed such tragic scenes in 50 (years. A member of the crew said the first boat was picked up full of men, while women and children were still aboard the doomed ship. The first man up the ladder was a German fireman, who nearly upset a collapsable boat in his hurry to get aboard. Another boat came came alongside full of water, wherein little children clung pitifully together. Mr W. H. Jupp, the only Englishman aboard the Hammonia, said the passengers were blown about like shuttlecocks. The sea was mountainous. He hurried on deck, being awakened by shrieks and stampeding, to find the starboard gunwale almost touching the water, and the passengers clinging to the stanchions or anything else they could grasp. He pulled several women and children out of the water. An ugly rush for the boats was mostly by Spaniards. He assisted the German officers to keep them at bay while women and children were put in the boats, several of which were smashed or capsized. The captain of the Hammonia said so' far as he knew all were saved except eight sailors mid seven passengers. He attributed the disaster to the terrible weather, the seas breaking over and steadily filling the ship. He left the ship seven minutes before she sank. Other estimates put the loss of life at between 30 and 60—(A. and N.Z.) TWO LIFE BOATS CAPSIZE. 30 WOMEN AND CHILDREN LOST. (Received 13, 1.25 p.m.) London, Sept. 12. The Soldier Prince, which went to the Hammonia’s rescue, reports two boats containing 30 women and children capsized, none escaping—(A. and N.Z.)