AT SEA.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 19 October 1914, Page 5

AT SEA.

FOUR GERMAN DESTROYERS

SUNK

DAMAGE TO BRITISH VESSELS

SLIGHT.

THE SINKING OF THE HAWKE

SURVIVORS' STORIES

NO SIGN OF CONFUSION,

BOMBARDMENT OF CATTARO RE-.

SUMED

RUSSIAN MINES IN THE BALTIC

LONDON, Oct. 18

The Press Bureau reports that a British cruiser and four destroyers sank four German destroyers on the Dutch

coast,

The High Commissioner, under date London, October 17, 7.35 p.m., gives the following official confirmation;

The cruiser Undaunted, accompanied by the destroyers Lanes, Lennox, Legion and Loyal, engaged four German destroyers off the Dutch coast this afternoon. AH the enemy's destroyers were sunk. Official.—One officer and four men were wounded in the engagement resulting in the sinking of four German destroyers. The damage to the British vessels was slight. We picked up 31 Germans. v The casualties of the British Naval in the siege of Antwerp were 12 killed and 89 wounded. The Hawke sank in five minutes. The survivors, who escaped in one boat, were; picked up by a Norwegian steamer and transferred to a trawler. When war broke out, the Hawke was a sea-training vessel foi boys. Most of the crew were very young, and included eight cadets who had only left Dartmouth College in August. The skipper of the trawler Bensinness states that the torpedo struck the Hawke aft of the engine-room at eleven o'clock in the morning. There was only time to launch one or two boats before the vessel turned tiirtle. • The rescued men, who had been adrift for five hours in an open boat, • told him that they saw hundreds of rmen struggling in the water, wearing corks jackets, -and hanging on to floats and rafts. They could no nothing, as their boat was. packed. Other survivors state-that the Hawke sighted a foreign trawler. In accordance with instructions, the Hawke approached, with a view to examining the ship*. As she neared the trawler an explosion occurred, and the periscope of a submarine showed above water. The explosion was. so -terrific that ■ maimed men were hlow into the air I plates twisted, and a gap torn in the i side of the Hawke, which canted to starboard with alarming rapidity. The crew attempted to man the'guns but owing to the list it was impossible to train them on the submarine. _The Hawke was splendidly equipped with life-saving apparatus, but it was impossible to get out the boats. About 200 of the crew got away on a readymade raft. Their fate is unknown, but a steam pinnace, densely packed, was seen to sink. r J- H; D. Watson, surgeon on the Hawke, a "well-known international, is missing. . Survivors of the Hawke state that the torpedo must have struck the magazine. The fittings were sent flying. The explosion crumpled up the two decks. The Hawke heeled on to her .beam ends, and lowering rafts from the bows was almost impossible, most of them having holes.knocked in them.as they swung overboard The skipper was on the bridge when the ship was struck. His orders were promptly obeyed, and there was no sign of confusion. It was bitterly cold. After the disaster the periscope of the submarine was again seen, indicating that the Germans were on the lookout for any cruisers coming to the Hawke's assistance. Rafts freed from the ship gradually drifted apart. A survivor from the engine-room says: "The explosion sent us flying. One "cylinder was wrecked, the steam escaping in scalding clouds. The bugles sounded the «umons, 'Everyone remain at his post,' and the order to abandon the ship quickly followed " ROME, Oct. 18. The bombardment of Cattaro was resumed with tho greatest violence from the fleet and Mount Louchin.

During the night six French ships, in response to a wireless message, rushed in search of an Austrian torpedo flotilla, which was attacking one of the Allies' vessels. A submarine struck the Austrian torpedoer, but the rest escaped. HONOLULU, Oct. 18. The Geier remains indefinitely to repair engines, which will require several weeks. The Government is watching, to prvent the violation of neutrality. . PETROGRAD, Oct. 18. Official.—Owing to the German submarines appearing at the entrance to* the Gulf of Finland and the Russian shores, Russia has mined the mouths of the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga, whence all traffic is stopped. (Received Oct. 19, 10.30- a.m.) LONDON, Oct. 18. The German cargo steamer Sued'mark. captured in the Red Sea and valued at £200,000, was burned during a ware>houose fire at Alexandria. The steamer MoorcTam, from New York for Rotterdam, struck a mine m the North Sea, but continued her voyage. Seven of those aboard wer© wounded.