REBELS FIRE ON BRITISH YACHT

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLII, Issue 20493, 11 August 1936, Page 7

REBELS FIRE ON BRITISH YACHT

OFFICIAL REGRET EXPRESSED United Press Association—Bs Electric Telegraph —Copyright (Received August 10, 8.20 p.m.) LONDON, August 10. Captain Rupert Saville (45), a retired Royal Air Force officer, was killed and his American wife was wounded, but not seriously, by a rebel shell while they were cruising in their yacht, the Blue Shadow, off Gijon in northern Spain. The British torpedo boat Comet came to the rescue and took off the passengers. Captain Saville put into Gijon for repairs, after grounding outside the harbour, but he was warned that the rebel warship Almirante Cervera was approaching to resume the bombardment of the town. He again put to sea. The warship mistook the Blue Shadow for a Government vessel and fired several times, registering a direct hit, necessitating the immediate abandonment of the yacht. Tire Almirante Cervera has already severely damaged the town, and killed and wounded hundreds in a week’s bombardment with eight-inch guns. The officer commanding the Almirante Cervera wirelessed his profound regret to the British Embassy. Hendaye reports that the Almirante Cervera was apparently firing at anything it could see. It hit the Blue Shadow a mile away. Captain Saville was the second English civil war victim, the first being Fernander, an inspector for the Ford Company, who was shot in a street at Barcelona last month.