LOSS OF DORIC STAR

Southland Times, Issue 23992, 6 December 1939, Page 5

LOSS OF DORIC STAR

VESSEL SUNK BY RAIDER

ADMIRAL SCHEER BLAMED REPORTED ACTION IN SOUTH ATLANTIC SHIP ON VOYAGE FROM NEW ZEALAND (United Press Assn.—Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. December - 5, 7.45 p.m.) LONDON, December 4. An Admiralty communique announces that the steamer Doric Star was attacked by a German raider and, as no further information has been received, it is presumed that she was sunk. She was travelling from New Zealand and Australia. It is understood that the Doric Star was sunk in the South Atlantic, it is assumed, by the Admiral Scheer. The Berlin radio says that the sinking took place in the South Atlantic. The Daily Mail says it is believed that the Doric Star was attacked near the Cape of Good Hope.

The British ship Eskdene was sunk by a mine. The crew of 29 was landed at a Scottish port. The crew rowed for 14 hours in an open boat. The boatswain was torpedoed five times in the last war. The captain returned to the charthouse after the explosion. The lights had failed, and he struck matches 'to ascertain his position, which he wirelessed with the SOS. The Eskdene was ordered back to Murmansk on the outbreak of war. She carried timber.

Among the German ships recently captured and brought to British ports was the' Hamburg steamer Eilbak (2185 tons), built in 1936/ The ship sailed from a Canadian port just be-

fore the war and arrived at the Azores. She was reported to have left St Michaels at the beginning of November. The trawler Sophie Busse (215 tons), of Wesermund, has also been brought in as a prize. The captain of the Watussi, which was destroyed by the captain after discovery by a South African aeroplane, asked why he set fire to the steamer instead of opening the seacocks, said that he was taking no chances. It was the unwritten law of a captain never to allow his command to fall into enemy hands. RUMANIAN FEAR OF “PROVOCATION” SIZE OF GUNS ON ALLIED SHIPS LIMITED 11 '■ f (Received December 5, 6.30 p.m.) BUCHAREST, December 4. Rumania has limited by decree the size of guns that can be carried on British and French ships entering Rumania, fearing Germany’s use of them as “provocation.”