TRAGEDY OF THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1925, Page 7

TRAGEDY OF THE SEA.

DOOMED JAPANESE SHIP. HOMERIC CAPTAIN’S ACTION. New York, April 23. The division of opinion among the passengers of the Homeric is about equal as to whether Captain Roberts upheld the best British traditions when he failed to rescue the crew of the Japanese steamer Raifuku Maru, which foundered with all hands off Halifax. Captain Roberts sa'id: “It would have been madness to launch boats in such terrible seas. During 40 years at sea I never witnessed such a horrible marine disaster.”

Mr. Paul Alberti, a passenger, said: “If the rafts had been launched from the Homeric and allowed to drift toward the Japanese ship a few men might have been saved. The Rev. James Talbot, of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, who prayed with bare head on deck as the Japanese drowned, thought that Captain Roberts did everything possible. “1 finally saw 20 Japanese heads and shoulders as they made a last stand on the bridge before they disappeared,”, he said. “It was most tragic. The rigging and smoke-stack were dipping info the water, and the heavy seas often hid them from sight; and the same waves splashed right over the Homeric. . Our ship poured oil on the water to calm it, and we went so close that a collision wa.s imminent. We were only 200 yards away.”

Another passenger said that Captain Roberts would have been • murderer if he had sent boats out.