TORPEDOED AND SUNK.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LII, Issue 113, 16 May 1918, Page 3

TORPEDOED AND SUNK.

H.M.S. €AL'GAPJAN

48 LIVES LOST

The Admiralty annonv.eed that His Majesty's armed mercantile cruiser Calgarian (Captain Rolxu-t A. Newth, Soya I Navy) was torpedoed and sunk on ".March L Two officers and 46 men (including mercantile cicw) were lost. The Times Belfast correspondent wrote:—The Calgarian was torpedoed ;ni"d sunk off the North Irish coast. She had on board a mercantile crew of 450 men, and. in addition, 160 nival ratings, and was escorted by. destroyers and trawlers. The day was. beavttiful, and everything went well until the afternoon, when, at about 4 o'clock, without any -warning, Hie shfp was .struck by a torpedo, near th e forward boilers. ' The interior of the shrp was immediately plunged into darkness as the electric lighting arrangements were disorganised byi the explosion. Those be : k>\v came on deck, and there was no panic among the men, whose beTiaviour was .splendid. Immediate steps were taken to ascertain the exter.t of the. damage with the view of saving, the ship, and while this work was in proress two more torpedoes were fired in quick, succession. The latter hit. the M..sel, and explodyA in the engfneroam. The decks were .iamaeed, and several of the lifeboats were bk>wn to atoms. The force of the explosion, was fiich- that several men were blown off th e decks into the water, and many v.-ei-g injured by flying splinters. The work of disembarking was carried out quickly, the accompanying destroyers rendering admirable service. Over 400 men were landed at Lame, and about 20 of them were seriously injured, and had to be conveyed to hospital. Other survivors were taken to other ports'. High tribute to the coolness and courage of Captain Newton was paid by all the survivors. He was the last man to leave the sinking vessel. , A member of the crew who came from. Liverpool said : -

H e was looking out of the port side of the ship when he observed n lons black shadown in the water about 2CO vard.s away, and then he saw tic wake <if a torpedo -coming towards t! e ship. He knew they wer e about to be torpedoed, and he jumped back into the cabin shouting "Look out, boys," and almost immediately the ship was struck. The men hurried o-j to the decks, which were soon crowded, and the order was i'iven to "stand by,'" as the ship would keep afloat. The engineering Mali and stokers then returned to their duties, but before steam could be- raised there was another loud expulsion, which sent up clouds of steam and flying fragments of iron and timber. We knew, he continued, tlie ship was- doomed, and all hands- proceeded to disembark. There were -practically no casualties the upper deck hands, but I should' think that few of those who went down halow could survive tire last explosion. One of th e stokers, whose home is iin London, said : . | He haci only gone c:i watch in the I forward stokehold when the explosion occurred. Tons of eonl and splinters were tlunir about, and there was a great inrush or water from a- gaping hole in the -side of the ship. He rushed from the hold and managed to get out before the watertight doors closed. He was the only survivor of 30 men who were on watch in the hold at the time. A deckhand said' that about threequarters of an hour elapsed from the time the first torpedo struck th e ship until the second one was lired. the third j one striking her about a minute later. ! A Glasgow sailor . said that was the : 13th trio Tie had 1 made, and lie had. told ' some of his comrades during the voyage that 13 was a n unlucky number, ' and that Fritz would get them, this- I time. Another survivor said "that when swimming, towards a rescue ship he heard a young boy in the-Water crying piteously, "Mother, mother. *' H e secured a piece of timber for the lad to hold on to. ~

The Calga'rian was the second largest ship, a»d the newest, in the Allan Line fleet, which is controlled bv| the •Canadian Pacific Ocean Services (Ltd.). She was- of 17,515 tons gross, and was built by the Fairfiell Company in 1914 ! for the mail and passenger .service between Liverpool and iCamda. It was only within recent years that a vessel of her <?ize could navigate the St. Lawrence. She was built witTi a cruiser stern, was driven' by steam turbines and quadruple screws, and could steam 20£ knots. , ~