SINKING OF REWA.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16039, 25 January 1918, Page 7

SINKING OF REWA.

SUB3IABINE NOT SEEN. SUFFERINGS OF SURVIVORS. LONDON, Jan. 10. Describing the sinking of the hospital ship Rewa in the Bristol Channel at midnight on January 4, the Admiralty report statqs that tho torpedo struck tho Rewa amidships, but the,submarine was not seen. "'A member of the crew stated;—Wo considered that we were out of the danger zone, and tho ship was lighted up. The concussion extinguished tho lights. There was no time to save personal belongings. The moon had risen. Magnificent order prevailed. Two or three of the boats wers destroyed by the explosion. Most of the patients were from the East, many of them suffering from malaria. They had a terrible experience exposed in open boats and on. rafts for three hours. The boats were used for the stretcher-oases, and tho wounded who could walk had to he content’with rafts which were repeatedly soaked by the waves. Ten minutes after the last boat left the Rewa, which was sinking evenly, she suddenly planged’how foremost and disappeared. The boats kept close together awaiting rescue. When this arrived 550 wore transferred from the boats to ships within an. hour. The Spanish representative, who is carried on nil hospital ships as a guarantee that they are employed for hospital work alone, had left the Rewa at Gibraltar.