ATLANTIC TRAGEDY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 936, 5 December 1933, Page 1

ATLANTIC TRAGEDY.

Woman Passenger’s Story of Sea Search. LONDON, November 21. Little hope now remains that any of the crew of the steamer Saxilby (3630 tons), which sent out distress calls when 400 miles off Yalentia, Ireland, can have survived. The Cunard liner Berengaria, the British freighter Manchester Regiment, and the Dutch steamship Boschdijlc, which went to her help as fast as the fierce Atlantic gale would permit, found no trace either of boats or wreckage. A woman passenger in the liner Berengaria sent a wireless message to the “ Daily Mail ”: While the liner Berengaria was steaming at full speed for 200 miles in the teeth of a great gale, with seas 40ft high, to reach the Saxilby’s positions, all games, cinema shows, concerts and a dance were cancelled. “ This was not only due to the excessive pitching, but because the passengers were thinking of the shipwrecked men. “ We expected to reach the position of the Saxilby at II p.m., but because of the heavy seas we arrived at midnight. “ Women stood for hours gazing from the floodlit side through the blackness. Manv stayed up all night hoping to see a distant flare from the Saxilby’s crew. When dawn broke we were steaming fruitlessly around in a fifteen-mile circle. The search was abandoned at 9 a.m.” Brinley Samuel, captain of the Saxilby, was making his first voyage after a long period of unemployment. The crew 3vere mostly drawn from Swansea. Their families spent the whole night listening to the wireless, hoping for news that a rescue had been effected. The steamer .St Quentin, which lost her rudder in the storm. 300 miles off Valentia, is drifting. She is awaiting a tug. Her crew are safe.