HOW THE GULF LIGHT WAS TORPEDOED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 13701, 3 June 1915, Page 3

HOW THE GULF LIGHT WAS TORPEDOED.

MEMBERS OF CREW RELATE\ STORIES OF FRIGHTFULNESS,

PLYMOUTH (Eng.), May 4. Second Officer Bowers and other members of the crew of the American steamer Gulf Light, torpedoed off the Scilly Islands on Saturday by a German submarine, were interviewed by American Consul Stephens. The testimony of the aoatrieh will comprise part of the report which American Ambassador Page is to send to. Socretary Bryan, i While they admitted that it, was foggy off the Scilly Islands last Saturday, members of the -.crew insisted that the nationality of the Gulf Light could ot have been mistaken. Just before his examination to-day by Consul Stephens, Bowers gave out the following statement :— "About noon on Saturday, while we were 25 miles west of the Scilly Islands and while the Gulf Light was flying the Afrnerican flag, I saw, about two and a! half miles ahead, a submarine. I was 6n watch, and immediately notified Captain Alfred Gunther. The diver remained on the surface , about three minutes, and then disappeared. ''Twentyifive minutes .jifter the Gulf Light was 'struck by a torpedo on the starboard side. There was a tremendous shock, th&n the Gulf Light started to go down. The submarine had not reappeared on the surface before discharging the torpedo. "Previous to meeting the diver we had been met by two patrol boats, whiqh accompanied us on x «ither side. The boat on pnir starboard side was ho badly shaken by the explosion that her crew imagined that she also had been torpedoed." .