SCENES AT WRECK.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 July 1922, Page 5

SCENES AT WRECK.

lAJSS of the esypt. ANXIETY TO GET AWAY. CAUSES LOSS OF LIFE. CREW NOT AT POSITIONS, By Teregnrpft.—Press Assn.— Copyright. Received July 26, 5.5 p.m. London, July 25. The inquiry was continued into the loss of the P. and O. steamer Egypt, which was sunk in the English Channel after collision with another steamer, many lives being lost. Captain Collier, commander of the Egypt, told a graphic story of the last scenes before the vessel sank. After the collision the Egypt heeled so badly that he was able to walk from the starboard side to the keel, from which he sprang into a small boat, and while doing so he received a severe blow on the head and an injury to the knee. “When I left the ship no one was on board, unless they were in the cabins,” he added. He denied that Lascars generally, or this crew in particular, were guilty of coward-* ice. The loss of life was due to the fact that passengers and crew threw themselves into the sea indiscriminately, and the confusion was due to anxiety to get away before the ship turned turtle. His explanation of this want of discipline was simply the terror of the crew, who did, not take up their positions as they should have done. Witnes did not notice violence on the part of the crew—revolver-firing, the use of knives, or anything of that sort. The accident to the Egypt was abnormal, and the fact of the ship turning turtle prevented access to the boats. Even if the crew had been entirely white, the loss of life would have been the same. “For the work between London and Bombay, I would choose Lascars,” he added. Mr. Cartwright, the chief officer, said that two days before the disaster he gave the Lascars boat drill for about ten minutes. He made a list of the boats and the men allotted to them. When the order for boat stations was given he could not find any Lascars, and practically no boat’s crew went with its boat. The suddenness of the occurrence was the reason for the lack of discipline. 'Every Lascar was terrorstricken—not violent, but frightened and useless. Some of the white crew were jumpy and nervous, but they did their work.