DROWNED BELOW DECK.

Colonist, Volume LXI, Issue 15046, 14 April 1919, Page 2

DROWNED BELOW DECK.

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. Lord .Kitchener andJhls staff did not' even- reaoh .the .deck' of- .theßritisfii 'cruiser.'Hampshire „• after .'she struck a1 mine off, th£ -coast - \of, > Scotland • one stormy night-in June," 1916, according to a warrant < officer, who has just told the story of the sinking- to a correspondent of the Manchester "Guardian." ' Questions concerning the sinking' of the Hampshire have been asked in Parliament, because of the persistent rumour that the vessel had been struck by a submarine, and Lord Kitchener had been carried off a prisoner to Germany. JVo detailed statement,' however has eJ?£ be ~a offici, ally given out. The name" of the officer who now tells fhe story has not been disclosed.

lour days after the Jutland battle according tp the officer, the Hampshire took Lord 4Kitchener aboard, on June o, and set out with ab6ut 800 persons on board in "the foullest weather known in that region." She was escorted by two destroyers, which were unable to face the storm and returned to port. Everything on board the Hampshire was lashod down, and only one hatchway was left open. . J f About eight o'clock in the evening the ship was shaken by a terrific explosion, and the crew scrambled for the deck. Officers quickly took; their posts, but their orders could not be heard, because of the raging storm and the terrific sound of escaping steam. Immediately after the explosion, there was another, and all lights went out, which added to the confusion.

The officer with a companion, cut the lashings of a life-raft, it being impossible to launch the boats in the terrific sea, and the raft was slipped over the side! It turned upside down, but finally righted, and he with others found themselves afloat Almost immediately the ship went down, not more than five minutes after the first explosion. The officer did not see Lord Kitchener on deck, and it is his opinion that, as only one hatchway was open, the only men who reached deck were those who knew that way Although much confused, he recalls trying t 0 open a number of other hatchways while trying to reach the deck, and found them all battened down The raft drifted .with the gale for five hours,.during which many 6 0 f the men were washed from the raft, while others died and rolled into the net in the-cen-tre. The raft was then tossed throush an opening m a rocky reef, and beached on an island.

\\FH °f t^ scoffed at the suggestion that Lord Kitchener had been savfd, and ZtLT^ mTIf c Hampshire had been mined and not torpedoed.

The recent decline in the price of sheep has hit some of the dealers in Canterburyver^ hard. An Ashburton dealer wheAad been heavily stocked before the decline in the market, has Been obliged to employ a man continuously to drive his sheep owing to the shortage of teed. A gljjt also took place in the store sheep market owing to large consignments being recently conveyed from the North Island.