RAIDER’S VICTIMS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24605, 13 May 1941, Page 7

RAIDER’S VICTIMS

WEEKS OF CAPTIVITY SYDNEY MAN’S EXPERIENCE (Rec; 9 p.m.)„ SYDNEY, May 12. '.The sinking or capture of nine ships by a German raider in the Indian Ocean is confirmed by Mr Charles Jeffries,, who has returned to Sydney after having shared weeks of captivity with 193 other seamen from the raider’s victims. His ship, the Commissaire Ramel, was sunk by the raider on September 20, and three men who were prisoners with him in the holds of the Nazi ship died later in a prison ramp in Italian Somaliland. Mr Jeffries said the raider was the Hansa liner Atlantis, of about 14,000 tons. She is disguised as a Japanese trader, and used a Japanese name. He confirmed an American report of January 5 that the victims of the raider were the British-owned ships Scientist, Kemmendine. City of Baghdad. King City. Athel King, and Benarty. the French ship Commissaire Ramel. the Norwegian motor ship Tinnara, and the Jugoslav steamer Durmitor Mr Jeffries said that to intimidate their captives the crew of the raider lined them up on deck and splattered it with bullets from machine guns mounted on the bridge. The prisoners lived on gruel made with flour and water, and each man was given one-third of a cup of water twice a day.