32,000-TON GERMAN LINER COLUMBUS SINKING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 301, 21 December 1939, Page 7

32,000-TON GERMAN LINER COLUMBUS SINKING

BRITISH DESTROYER NEARBY

SHIP SET AFIRE TO AVOID CAPTURE

SURVIVORS BROUGHT TO PORT IN AMERICAN CRUISER (By Telegraph—Pre*-? AssociationReceived Dee. 20, 7.5 p.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 19. The correspondent of the Associated Press of America at Norfolk. Virginia., says that Admiral Taussig, of the naval operating base, reported that the United States cruiser Tuscaloosa was advised by radio that the German liner Columbus, of 32,565 tons, which slipped out of Vera Cruz on December 14, is being scuttled 300 miles north-east of Cape Henry. The Tuscaloosa was standing by to pick up the crew. A later message from Washington says that the White House announced that the Tuscaloosa discovered the Columbus in a sinking lition outside the neutrality zone. A British man-n'-war was nearby, but there was no evidence of a fight. Ihe Tuscaloosa was now bringing the survivors to an American port. The Navv Deartinent statement said: "The Tuscaloosa found the Columbus sinking in the presence of "a British destroyer, but as far as we know no un-neutral action occurred .Mr. Roosevelt’s secretary said "The British may have caused the German crew to scuttle the Columbus. Cape Henry is on the coast of Virginia (U.S.A. . approximately 20 miles east of the American Atlantic seaboard of Newport News. The Tuscaloosa lat • 'as ■ ading for NewYork with 579 survivors, including nine women. The Tuscaloosa radioed that a muster of the. crew- of the Columbus showed that two firemen were missing. The liner was afire from stem to stern and was sinking slowly when the cruiser left. The British Admiralty announced at 2.10 a.m.: "The Columbus set fire to herself 400 miles to the north of Bermuda on sighting a British warship. The crew abandoned her.