A GREAT DISASTER

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 8757, 12 June 1914, Page 11

A GREAT DISASTER

GRAND DUKE'S MOVING NARRATIVE HOW A RUSSIAN WARSHIP MET HER DOOM. ST. PETERSBURG, April 22. In the new number of the. Russian service review, “Army and Fleet,” the Grand Duke Kyrill publishes a moving personal narrative of. the founder-' ing of the Petropavlovsk, destroyed by a Japanese floating mine just ten • years ago outside Port Arthur Harbour. The Grand Duke, who was one of tho few survivors, says that at tho moment of the explosion he was standing with the artist Verestehaguin on the starboard side of the bridge. Verestehaguin . was sketching the Japanse squadron, which was visible in the distance, and as he worked lie spoke of his experiences in other campaigns. With great, assurance -he said that ho was fully convinced that where he was nothing could happen amiss.. “With absolute suddenness a terrifying explosion burst near us: Tho battleship quivered with frightful violence, and almost at once’ a rush of hot, suffocating gas came up like a gust with enormous force and burned my face. All tho air was filled with a heavy, penetrating smell which seemed to me to bo the smell of our ammunition. The Petropavlovsk immediately began to list heavily to starhhard. “I ran across the deck to port. 1 had to jump over the body of Admiral Molas, whose head was bleeding. He lay beside the bodies of two signalmen. I climbed up a twelve-, foot turret; and then Idealised that our magazine had exploded and that our ship was foundering. All the starboard side was already awash, with waves boating on the deck. She was also going down by the bow, and it could not bo long before she wa». engulfed. GRAND DUKE’S STRUGGLE. FOR LIFE. “I shinned down from tho tower and •at once throw myself into the water. A strong wave lifted me, and a current spun me round as in: a.maelstrom,' and then throw mo lar out from the ship, where I was still whirled round and at the same time sucked down. A dreadful noise, of water and complete darkness overwhelmed me, I: felt that 1 was going straight to death. I made the sign of tho Cross and began to pray, I remembered all my family relations and those doar to me. It seemed that my last moment had come, for respiration was getting impossible, and by panting for breath 1 was swallowing water and began to choke. “Instinctively I started moving raj hands and legs, and then to my surprise I felt myself rising towards the. surface, and the isonso of 'things around mo seemed lighter. I gathered hope and energy. Another •sharp struggle and. I was on tho -surface of a i fairly calm sea. I caught hold of a piece of floating wood, and noticed that I was at some distance from the Petropavlovsk, which continued, to settle down. Her stern was- now standing up nearly vertical, and tho propellers were still revolving in tho air. This moment stamped itself especially "deep in my memory. “I saw the floating roof of tho battleship’s cutter" drifting near me. I let go ray plank and seized tho handrail of tho roof. Next I saw swimming past me a midshipman, by name Schlippe. I called to him, bub ho did not answer. ■ Later I learnt that both his ear-drums had been burst by the explosion. THE RESCUE. “Then: in the distance I saw a big rowboat. I shouted, but no one heard me. I still had the hope,,.of being saved, and Aid not feel: my . strength abating. At . last .I was soon, and a boat from the torpedo-boat Gaydamak came up to me. Two sailors had difficulty in lifting mo out ’of the water, for my heavy overcoat was sodden with the . sea. r,rQm.i.tluuboat I was takon.to the deck of the torpedoboat Bezsrumuy. There in the cabin my body was rubbed with vodka. I was given warm clothing and cognac, and at once they informed my brother Boris, who , from the Golden. Sill, bad , seen the entire catastrophe. Later he himself arrived and took mo from the torpedo-boat to his personal railway train. “The news of the perishing of Ad. rairal Makaroff and his officers and men and the loss of the ship weighed on mo as something irreparable* And the death of my best* friend, Lieutenant von Kube, added to this, made all these disasters fall on me like blows that will never be effaced from ray memory.” :."", A BROTHER’S PRAYER. The Grand Duke Kyrill’s brother, tho Grand Duke Boris, contribute* his personal narrative of the disaster as ho witnessed it from the shore. Distracted at tho sight arid at what he felt was tho sure death of his brother, he writes, he hastened back to his train, and knelt in front of the ikon that had been given him by hi* younger brother Andre. “I prayed fervently,” ho proceeds, “Ob, God, work a miracle, and save my brother 1” Then a ray of hope cheered me. And in almost the next minute I saw • - midshipman driving up in. frantic speed to my train. I felt that he was the bearer of good news even before he said:,‘Your brother is saved.’ I hurried at once to Kyrill’s side and found him greatly shaken. Ho kept . saying to himself 'Poor Kube, poor Kube!’ ”