17 LIVES LOST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18582, 17 December 1934, Page 5

17 LIVES LOST

MID -ATLANTIC TRAGEDY

GALLANT RESCUE WORK

NEW YORK, Dec. 15,

Captain J. C. P. Bissett, master of the liner Ascania, ■wirelessed to the New York Times a detailed account of the foundering of the Usworth in •ho North Atlantic on Friday, putting the correct Joss of life 'lit, 17, which included two sailors from the Jean Jadot. Nine of the Usworth's crew were saved ami two are aboard the .lean Jadot bound for Antwerp. The remainder are oh the Ascania en route to Halifax.

Captain Bissett said he picked up the R.O.S. at midnight on Thursday ■Hid steamed 100 miles, arriving on the scene at 7 o'clock in the morning. In mountainous seas the Jean Jadot was trying to make contact with the Usworth with life lines. The Ascania made like efforts till noon, but it was impossible in the high seas which continued, and streams of oil from the Jean Jadot; failed to calm the water.

A lifeboat from the Jean Jadot reached the Usworth after a terrific struggle and removed 14 men, but in attempting lo return to the Jean Jadot he lifeboat capsized, 14 being drowned, including two of the lifeboat crew. At 1.30 o'clock in the afternoon, the Ascania launched a lifeboat and picked •ip the remainder or' the crew, but three men fell into the ocean and were drowned through over eagerness to board the lifeboat from the Usworth. Captain Bissett praised volunteers from the Jean Jadot and his vessel Tor making the perilous lifeboat attempts. He said that he left the scene at 3.30 o'clock in the afternoon with the Usworth in a sinking condition.