TORPEDOED HOSPITAL SHIP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 14647, 3 July 1918, Page 3

TORPEDOED HOSPITAL SHIP

LOSS OF LLxYNDOVERY CASTLE

HUNS' WANTON DELJEERATION

REVEALED,

(Australian and N.Z. Cable Association < (Reuters Telegram.) LONDON, Ju!y 1. The Press Bureau states: — Germany's awful debt to the world continues to grow. Another hospital ship has been torpedoed, this time 170 miles 'from the .nearest land, her people being turned adrift m the boats to sink or swim, and though, as it (happened, she was a Canadian hospital sinp returning from Halifax with no wounded aboard, the tale of the crime reveals wanton deliberation on the part of t/he submarine commander, ailmost suggesting that ite hoped to iind her full of helpless and injured men. Tho JJandovery CastJe was chartered by the Canadian Government to convey sick and wounded from Halifax, and had on 'board' at the time 80 members of the Medical Corps, including seven officers. The Llandovery Castle was steaming at 14 knots, and showing the usual navigation lights and the regulation hospital ship lights^. Under an overcast sky sh-e was plainly visible and unmistakable jur anything but what she was — a ship immune by evei'y law of war and peace from attack or molestation. No one aboard saw the wake of the torpedo, and the ih-st intimation that a submarine was m the vicinity was the jar and roar of an explosion from aft. Then the lights went out, and everything after that occurred m darkness, except for the dim light shed by au emergency dynamo, until just before t:he ship foundered. ! T3ie engines swere immediately rang to stop, and then were set full speed astern, but from the engine room cjune no answer. The ship's rehearsed, routine, however, held good, for with the Germans one must bo prepared for every sudi emergency. Along the darkened decks the crew groped their way to tJie boat stations and stood by for orders to leave. The captain megaphoned from the bridge: "Hold on till the way is off the ship."

A carpenter went aft and exaroiru'd the damage, and the- Marconi operator remained m his cabin, vainly striving to transmit the ship's position, but gained no response. The carpenter reported that the hold aft was blown m. and tlie -ship could not remain afloat. The order was then given to lower the boats and 1 abandon ship. The officer commanding the % Canadian Medical Corps reported that aJI his people were out. This is important, inasmuch as only the captain's boat has been picked up, and except for any oi the ship's ; company or ■ the engine room crew killed by the torpedo, it is clear that everyone got' a way. The captain and second officer entered the last boat, and got clear of the ship just m time to avoid being sucked under as the vessel's stern went down. One boiler seemed to explode as the water reached it. The ship sank m ten minutes from tlie time she was torpedoed. The captain's boat rescued eleven men from the wreckage. When the submarine was seen, she hailed the boat m English to "com© alongside." The second officer replied, ''We are picking up .a drowning man," and a voice from the submarine replied, "pome alongside." The boat held on its course, but two revolver shots iwere fired over it, the commander of the submarine shouting, "Come alongside, or 1 shoot, my big gun.*' • The boat then obeyed, and the captain was ordered aboard the submarine and questioned regarding the name of the ship.

The submarine commander did not appear surprised when told that she was a hospital ship; He said; " You were carrying eight American flying officers,'" which tlie captain denied, stating that he had seven Canadian medicals aboard an<J that the ship was chartered by tih>B Canadian Government to carry Canadian, sick and wounded. Replying to Mie submarine commauder's reiterated statement that the vessel was carrying American flyers, the captain gave ' his word of &onor that the earner only carried patients, medion'. men, sisters, and crew. The commander then ordered one of the Canadian medical men on board. He was roughly handled 1 by the Germans, and had -a small "bone m his foot broken. He (was interrogated, but protested m his character a& a medical man, and was ordered back into the boat with the captain.

The submarine then, circled around the wreckage, and' again stopped the boat and questioned the second and fourth officers, a/nd then invented a new excu.se by 1 stating that the vessel must hnve been carrying munitions, owing to Mic big explosion aft. The second officer explained that tlic exnlosion was due to the boiler. They were then allowed, to return to the boat, and the submarine began firi'ig at an unseen target, possibly at the other, boats. The 'captain decided to make for the Irish coast, and bad proceeded 70 miles when he was picked up by* a destroyer and brought, to Queenstown.