SUNK BY RAIDER

Patea Mail, 3 January 1941, Page 3

SUNK BY RAIDER

A VIVID STORY Two of the members of the crew of the Port Brisbane which was sunk by a Gtrman raider in the Indian Ocean on November 21, are at, preesnt in Auckland, and one of them, Mr. Thomas C. Lloyd, who was quartermaster of the ship, and at the wheel throughout the shelling, claims that he was the luckiest of the 27 who escaped capture. Like his comrades, he has wasted no time in going back fo sea. “1 went to the wheel at 0 p.m. ” said Mr. Lloyd recently, ‘‘and at A. 45 the fourth officer stepped into the wheolhouse to alter the course three points as there was a ship approaching very close on -the - port quarter. We were swinging on to the now course when two searchlights focussed on us, and at the same time the other ship began firing. ‘‘Two shots passed over us and wont into tho water. They Wore apparently warning shots. Tho ne>ct shot went into the Marconi house aft of the funnel, and the fourth shell passed through the officers’ house on the port side of the lower bridge and fragments came up on the bridge. Tho splinters -damaged the canvas weather dodgers and knocked down slabs of concrete that had been placed to protect the wheolhouse from aerial machine-gun-ning. “The fifth shot burst through tho passengers’ smokeroom,'aft and adjoining the Marconi house, and the sixth shot was a cross-shot that burst ■ over the monkey island, or .upper 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 deckheacl of the wheolhouse. 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 aport. The next and seventh shot went into th'e after-house on the poop, but did not hit the defensive guns, 'Three more soots were fired at us. They hit the -aousework aft of the funnel, but none went below the water-line, and the ship s engines were not damaged. The chief officer then signalled by lamp to tho raider and she ceased fire. “Since the steering gear had carried away I left the wheolhouse and asked the captain for orders. He told me I had better get down below to my boat station,, a s wo were abandoning ship. My own boat was the one which bad .been shat away, and for tho moment I" debated whether I would take a cork iifcbeli; that was hanging on the bridge and get into the forward boat. . However, there were no tapes to the lifebelt, and I decided to go aft to my cabin in the after house and get my life-jacket. “I found that one of the shot g had thrown the black-out screen over the fioor. 1 pulled it away and went vinside Everything -was a, shamoles and there were shrapnel holes through tin bulkhead. I ’-vent back on dick and jumped three feet into the afterport boat. The fohvard one I almost entered was captured and my new boat was the only cue to escape. ■ “We tne.fi to avoid and did escape the raider,’- said Mr. Lloyd. : “Wo had lauwn, all the time that we were about 1200 miles from Australia ard ftb.nt 2000 from Mauritius, bat 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 tho men hud already aho wn that they could never have survived the 25 to 30 days ij. would have taken u g to reach Mauritius, ernes en in preference to ‘he shorter Australian distance because of th.vriivtitioij of the wind. “One of the men had been in bed on tie Port Brisbane suffering from pleurisy and lie was ill throughout the time we were in the lifeboat. Others suffered, from sunburn and seasickness and from thirst. Ratio n g of a dipper, of water and a biscuit three times a day had already, been iaaugurated in ur.y boat f> Mr. Lloyd also told how on the preceding day they had witnessed from n considerable distance the shelling of tho Maimoa> also lost in the Indian Ocean. They saw white puffs of smoke about 20 miles away on the port beam and immediately altered course away and closed to action stations. Later' they passed through some wreckage apparently shot away from, the Maimoa’s superstructure,. He 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 ’o be at least. TO knots, to catch, up and get into an adautageous position tor shellings Also with Mr, Lh/J in his pm cut' ship is Ernest Ryan, deck boy oi ri.e Pert Brisbane, who,- in the age of l e >, and with his first ship destroyed by the enemy, has no intention of leaving the sea. , "