SUNK BY BOMBS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24038, 8 August 1941, Page 2

SUNK BY BOMBS

CHANNEL STEAMER .TWENTY-THREE MISSING RESCUES IN HEAVY SEAS LONDON, July 19 At least 23 persons lost their lives when the cross-channel steamer St. Patrick of 1922 tons, was dive-bombed and j sunk by enemy aircraft near the end of the trip from Hosslare to Fishguard oarlv in the morning. Among the 66 survivors were'women and children, many of whom were saved by jumping overhoard and clinging to rafts until they were picked up by a warship, a merchant ship, and other era it. Some survivors, including a number who were injured when four bombs hit the ship, were exhausted when brought ashore, where they were treated in hospital and in a sick bay at a railway station. Dragged on to Rafts The crew numbered 40, and there were 44 passengers. Captain Faraday, the master, and the mate are believed to have been killed, and it is feared that all the first class passengers were killed except one, who is in hospital. Two stewardesses are also thought to have been lost. All the women and children passengers are understood to have been rescued, several of them owing their lives to the pluck of men who, jeopardising their own chances of safety, searched for them in the heavy sea and dragged them on to rails which had been thrown overboard as the steamer began to sink. Most of the passengers were asleep when the steamer was hit. She sank in a lew minutes —so quickly that there was little chance of lowering the boats. Many peoplo were killed in the explosion. A Terrible Sight 1 A Rossi are passenger. C. Cornell, said that when he reached the deck the St. Patrick was on tire. He had only just enough time to get a raft, hurl it overboard. and jump in alter it. He was joined hv a man with a fractured aim. It was aterrible sight to see women and the wounded struggling in the water, but they all showed great courage. David Healy said that, with two women and a child, he got on to a iaft, and they were all saved. John Daly said he threw two rafts into the water, and a woman and her young daughter reached one after a struggle and were rescued. , . , .. The St. Patrick, which, according to Lloyd's Register, belonged to the Fishguard and Rosslare Railways and Harbours Company, was bombed twice in two days in the Irish Sea by German aeroplanes last August. Ihe first time she zigzagged at lull speed and drove the aircratt off. The second time a passenger and one of the crow weie wounded hy machine-gun fire, the seaman dying later.