RAIDER'S VICTIM

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 9

RAIDER'S VICTIM

PORT BRISBANE CREW'S EXPERIENCE PESCHIITION OF SHELLING Two of tin 1 members of the crew of tlie Port Brisbane, which was sunk by a German raider in the Indian Ocean on November 21, are at present in Auckland, and one of them, Mr. Thomas ('. Lloyd, who was quartermaster of the ship and at the wheel throughout the shelling, claims that be was luckiest of the 27 who escaped capture. Like his comrades, be has wasted no time in going back to sea. "i went to the wheel at 9 p.m." said Mr. Lloyd yesterday, "and at 9.15 the fourth officer stepped into the wbeelhouse to alter course three points as there was a ship approaching very close on the port quarter. AVe were swinging on to the, new course when two searchlights focussed on to us and at the same time the other ship began firing. * "Two shots passed over us and went into the water. They were apparently warning shots. The next shot went into the .Marconi house aft of the funnel and the fourth shell passed through the officers' houso on the port side of the lower bridge and fragments came up on to the bridge. These splinters damaged the canvas weather dodgers and knocked down slabs of concrete that had been placed to protect the wheelhouse from aerial machine-gunning. "The fifth shot burst through the passengers' smokeroom, aft and adjoining the Marconi house, and the sixth shot was a cross-shot that burst over the monkey island, or tipper bridge. Splinters fractured a steam pipe on the funnel, releasing steam, the hissing of which made it quite impossible to hear further orders, carried away the forward starboard lifeboat, and sent concrete slabs through the deckhead of the wbeelhouse. Some fell alongside me, but the only injuries I got were a few jabs from broken glass. "This shot also put the steering-gear out of action and the ship would not answer her helm when the captain ordered me to put her hard-a-port. The next and seventh shot went into the

after house on the poop, but did not hit the defensive guns. I'liree more shots were tired at lis. J hey hit the housework aft of the funnel, hut none went below the water-line and the ship s engines were not damaged. The chief officer then signalled by lamp to the raider and she ceased fire. "Since the steering-gear had carried away I left the wheelhouse and asked the captain for orders. He told me I had better get down below to my boat station, as we were abandoning ship. My own boat was the one which had been shot away and for a moment I debated whether I would take a cork lifebuoy that was hanging on the bridge and get. into the forward port boat. However, there were no tapes to the lifebuoy and 1 decided to go aft to mv cabin in the after house and get my lifejacket. I "I found that one of the shots had thrown the black-out screen over the floor. I pulled it away and went inside. Everything was a shambles and there were'shrapnel holes through the bulkhead. 1 went back on deck and jumped three feet into the after port boat. The forward one 1 almost entered was captured and my new boat was the only one to escape. "We tried to avoid and did escape the raider," said Mr. Lloyd. "We had known all the time that we were about 1200 miles from Australia and about 2000 from Mauritius, but we were willing to take the chance of getting there in preference to being taken prisoner. However, it was lucky for us that we were found so soon by an Australian warship, for a few of the men had already shown that they could never have survived the 2-> to ''o days it would have taken us to reach Mauritius, chosen in preference to the shorter Australian distance because of the direction of the wind. "One of the men had been in bed on the Port Brisbane suffering from pleurisy and he was ill throughout the time we were in the lifeboat. Others suffered from sunburn and seasickness and from thirst. Nations of a dipper of water and a biscuit three times a day had already been inaugurated in my boa t." Mr. Lloyd also told how on the preceding day they had witnessed from a considerable distance the shelling of the Mainioa, also lost in the Indian Oceon. They saw white puffs of smoke about 20 miles away on the port beam and immediately altered course away and closed ti> notion stations. Later they passed through some wreckage, apparently shot away from the Maimoa's superstructure. Ho described, too, how throughout the day on which they were sunk they saw a faint trace of smoke following them on the, horizon astern. When darkness closed down, he said, the pursuing ship apparently used her superior speed, estimated by Mr. Lloyd to be at least 20 knots, to catch up and get into an advantageous position for shelling. Also with Mr. Lloyd in his present ship is Ernest Ryan, deck-bov of the Port Brisbane, who at the age of 15 and with his first ship destroyed by the enemy, has no intention of leaving the sea.