THE LOST APARIMA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16037, 23 January 1918, Page 6

THE LOST APARIMA.

AN ENGINEER’S GRAPHIC STORY

A graphic account of the torpedoing of the s.s. Aparima in the Channel is given by Mr. James M'Kecgan, who was an engineer in the ship, in a letter to his father, Mr. vCharles M‘Keegan, of Wellington:— ( “I was on watch in the engineroom,” he writes, “when about five minutes to ono on Monday morning we got a torpedo well aft. There was a terrific explosion’, and it just about blew the stern clean off her. There was very little time to think. 1 hopped up to the middle platform to shut the watertight door in the tmnud. By the time 1 got there the water was rushing out of°tho tunnel ,ull boro. The chief engineer arrived on the scene, and wo managed to close it, hut it was no good. The pressure of water was too great, and it forced the bulkhead door out. By this time the water was halfway up the engine columns. There was no “chance of doing anything further. When I got up on dock the water was level with it. . . It was pitch dark, and thp decks awash, and her bow stuck up in the air. I made tracks for No. 3 lifeboat on the starboard side. All the clothes I had on were a boiler suil._ a pair of socks, and a ‘sweat rag.’ I" had just stepped into the lifeboat when the ship took her last plunge, and in doing so the lifeboat davit caught the boat and capsized it. All hands landed in the cold briny; some of them, poor follows, never'to come out. When the boat overturned, all the gear dropped out, and I got caught up in it. . . I started to swiimjor it. Gee whizz I The water was not half cold—s4deg. I had been swimming about half an hour, when right in front loomed up a lifeboat. My temperature went up bang. I called out, and, thank God. thev heard me. Willing hands helped mo on board. She drifted about until 4.30 a.m., when we were picked np by a Norwegian steamer. They could not do enough for us—hot coffee when wo arrived, gave us all clothes, fixed up the wounded ones, plenty of cigarettes and cigars; ham and eggs ifor byeakfast. They took us up to st. Helen’s Bay, where we transferred into a, navy patrol steamer, which took us tip to Portsmouth. On the navy boat thev also treated us royally, and at 3o’clock on Monday afternoon we landed at Portsmouth. Wo were met on arrival by a R.N.R. Commander, who, after having sent the rest of the crowd to tho Sailors’ Home, took the skipper and I to his office, I being the only other officer in the boat. After having hoard our story, he sent mo with four of the cadets to the’ leading hotel in' Portsmouth, whore we were well looked after. Wo came to London yesterday morning, and the company has treated ns handsomely. . . Wo are going to bo sent back to New Zealand as yasscugors. The hardest wart about this turn out is that 17 out of 28 cadets lost their lives. The chief engineer, chief officer, second officer, and chief steward were “ail lost. . . Some of those who were saved were real heroes, especially tho cadets. ... If some of the brave and self-sacrificing things done on that fatal morning did not deserve the V.C., then 1 will turn it up.”