A TRANSPORT TORPEDOED.

Wanganui Herald, Volume L, Issue 14740, 20 October 1915, Page 5

A TRANSPORT TORPEDOED.

04 COLONIALS DROWNED. (Per United Press Association.) DUNEDIN, October 19. In the course of a letter relating to the torpedoing of a transport, Mr Lewin’s son says that the torpedo blew up the middle of the apartment where bunkers had .been fitted all round the hold. The explosion blew the hatches and the steps leading,from the hold clean off, and a Humber of men were caught down below. A. chain happened to bo hanging down from the,deck above, and the men climb.ed- up -somehow or other. Everything . was very orderly on the deck, so far as the soldiers were concerned. Most of tbs men in Lowin’s boat were thrown into the sea, as the crew lowered the boat .with a 'rush, while the other held on. Lcwin swum away and got into another ,bpat. After picking up live, or six men they made .for an island which appeared -to be about ten miles away. B:>ats, cruisers and destroyers commented to arrive about an hour and a' half after the transport was torpedoed. Lewin’s boat was picked up by a French destroyer, about 3-30p:m. Three New Zealanders belonging to the New Zealand headquarters staff, qnd about 51 Australians were lost. The .first torpedo missed the engine-room and the second missed tbe ship altogether. The torpedoing is supposed to have happened about September 3rd. A DUNEOINITE DROWNED. DUNEDIN. October 20. 'Die Dunedinite drowned by the torpedoing, of a. transport was James T. Taine, of the Fif(h Reinforcements, who .was,Qn the headquarters staff, as a specialist. He was a son of Mr Taine, of Taine’s chemical stores. ANOTHER ACCOUNT. DUNEDIN. October 20. Gunner Webb,, of. the Dunedin No. 2 t howitzer battery, was on the torpedoed* transport. In a letter to his father h* eava: “I was in a boat which capsized. There were 57 men in the boat, eight . above the full complement. .The snip was torpedoed at 9.45 a.m. We were nicked lip by a French torpedo boat at 2.15. Two torpedoes were fiml. One hit the ship, the deck On which we were sleeping being blown to matchwood, and several men killed. The troops were orderly, but one of the crew m tho boat was dnnerved and cut one of the falls, and so capsized the lot of us into the water. .Only three of our crowd were missing, and the whole ship’s death roll did not reach thirty. FURTHER PARTICULARS. DANNEVTRKE, October 20. Regarding the torpedoing of the trans.port, a Dannevirke resident received a letter stating that it was the troopship Southland, which left Alexandria on August 30th. and was torpedoed thirty miles from Mudros iat 9.30 at night. Two tpepedoos were fired, The first missed, but' The second struck below the waterline near the bow. Brigadier-General . Lyteu died from exposure and shock, and about 50 men were ' drowned or killed. The hospital ship Neuralia picked up many. The troopship was carrying the Bpcond Australian division, also General Legge and the headquarters staff, and was eventually beached at Mudros. Amongst those who wore on board 'the torpedoed transport was Driver Tom Lomas (brother of Mr J. J. Lomas, of ■Wanganui), of the headquarters staff of the Field Artillery. The latter received a letter to-day from the former, in which the writer states that they were torpedoed on tho way to the front, but after struggling in the water and a swim for dear life he managed to reach I a boat. He adds: “It was a groat experience, and I mu not looking for amother of that kind." *