ON THE HIGH SEAS

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 144670, 3 May 1915, Page 3

ON THE HIGH SEAS

British destroyer lost. TWO GERMAN TORPEDO BOATS 7 SUNK. (Received May 3, 1 p.m.) , LONDON, May 2. Official.—The destroyer Recruit was sunk by a submarine on Saturday. Four officers and twenty-one men were saved. German torpedo boats sunk the trawler Columbia, after which four British destroyers, after an hour’s chase, sunk both torpedo boats? They rescued two officers and 44 *f .the creW. Both events were in the vicinity of "the Galloper and Hinder lightships.; [The lightships mentioned are both some distance off the mouth of ‘the mouth of the Thames. A course between them would lead info the river.] SINKING OF FRENCH CRUISER. ROME.. May 1.-. An officer of the Leon Garabetta says tlie third crew were sleeping on the docks, and the"rest, except the officers, were in cabins, which were barred outside. Suddenly the ship was -plunged in darkness. Admiral Scnos ran out of his cabin in his night-shirt. There was a scene of indescribable anguish. Tiie crew barred below, were desperately shoutir" to be released. Their comrades were fumbling in the darkness, not knowing where to turn first. Soon the shouts became feeble murmurs. Then, as tho ship filled, there came the silence of death. Explorers of the hull with find masses of corpses tightly linked in desperate attitudes, which tell of supreme death struggles. Seven officers seized Admiral Senes forcibly and lowered him into a launch, ft capsized, and all were drowned.

As the last boat was making for the shore, long after the Leon Gambetta had sunk, it passed a cadet, the last living object. It was impossible to take him aboard the crowned boar The cadet gasped; “Xevor mind, lads. Carry a kiss to mother.” COAL STEAMER TORPEDOED LONDON 1 . May 1. The L 23 torpedoed the Russian coal steamer Svorno off the Kerry coast. She sank in twelve minutes. The crew was saved in the boats. BRITISH STEAMER STHNK. (Received May 3, 9.15 a.m.) LONDON.' May 2. A submarine sank'the British steamer Bdwaie from the River Plate. The crow were landed at the Scilly Isles.