MORE VICTIMS OF MINES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVII, Issue 21507, 21 November 1939, Page 7

MORE VICTIMS OF MINES

ITALIAN SHIP GOES DOWN Many Missing From Simon Bolivar Germany Denies Guilt United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph —Copyright {Received November 20, 7.50 p.m.) LONDON, November 20. German mines sunk the Swedish steamer 8.0. Borjesson, the British steamer Black Hill (2492 tons) and the Italian steamer Grazia (5857 tons) oil the East Coast in similar circumstances. “The Times’ ’says that five were killed on the Grazia, which sank in a few minutes seven miles off the coast. Two ships rescued 29 members of the crew, who were in a lifeboat and a 'plane search for further survivors proved fruitless. The Yugoslav steamer Carica Milica (6371 tons) was also mined, making five for the week-end off the East Coast. All the Carica Milica's crew of 26 escaped. Thirteen survivors from the 8.0. Borjesson have landed of whom eight were injured. They had been on a raft for three hours before they were picked up by a trawler. Six are believed to have perished. Twenty-two members of the crew from the Black Hill, including the captain, have landed. The Zeebrugge correspondent of the British United Press states that the Lithuanian steamer Kaunas, in ballast for England, was sunk, apparently by a mine. A fishing boat rescued sixteen of the crew of seventeen and landed them in Belgium. Explosions On Simon Bolivar It is now believed that there were three explosions on the Simon Bolivar, one of which was in the engineroom. This is according to the engineer’s statement. One explosion seemed to blow the side of the ship outward, for which reason members of the crew presumed that it was a time-bomb which was responsible. The theory of Internal explosion was also supported by the officer's descriptions of the violent discharge of scalding steam and oil which drenched the passengers in the cabins and saloons.

The casualty list gives 262 survivors, eight dead and 230 missing. The Berlin correspondent of the British United Press says that all the morning newspapers heatedly deny that Germany was gulty of the sinking of the Simon Bolivar. The “Volklscher Beobachter’ ’says that the suspicious haste with which Mr Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty) unashamedly accused Germany clearly reveals that it was an English mine. Official circles in London consider that the Simon Bolivar undoubtedly struck a German mine. A representative of the Dutch Legation, visiting an east coast hospital, found that the Injured survivors still boretraces of clinging fuel oil, which so blackened them that it was impossible to tell when they landed whether they were whites or negroes. A local tailor, responding to an appeal, brought garments to the hotel where other survivors were accommodated, and was distributing them when an air raid warning sounded, but all went calmly to the shelters. Launched at Rotterdam in 1927, the Simon Bolivar was a vessel of the following dimensions. Length 419.9 feet, breadth 59.1 feet, depth 27.7 feet, gross tonnage 8309. Her port of registry was Amsterdam. The Simon Bolivar flew the flag of the Royal Netherlands Steam Ship Company. Mines Washed Up The Brussels correspondent of the Exchange News Agency states that week-end gales washed up 11 mines on fhe Belgian coast. One exploded near the breakwater at Breedene, shattering the windows of a military hospital three miles away.