LOSS OF THE LAURENTIC.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15183, 31 March 1917, Page 7

LOSS OF THE LAURENTIC.

MANY FROZEN IN OPEN BOATS. TWO NEW. ZEALANDERS KILLED. LONDON, February 13. The White Star liner, Laurentici taken over by .the Admiralty as an ship, left port early in the evening of January 25. Within an hour of her departure'she struck two mines, and became a hopeless wreck. The crew numbered 475,' and, . with the exception of one two men who maj have been killed in the explosion, all took safelj to the boats. The terrible tragedy occurred at this point.. So intensely cold was the night that when the boats were picked up no fewer than 349 men were found frozen to death. Captain R. A. Norton, who was In command, told the Coroner at the inquest on the victims that the ship was steaming full speed ahead, and no lights were showing. Then came, the explosions, first abreast of the foremast on the port side, and the second abreast of the engine-room cn the port side.

“I tried to send a wireless call for help,” he said, “but found the second explosion had stopped the dynamo. • All the men got away safely in the boats. The best of order prevailed after the explosion. Officers and men lived up to the best traditions of the Navy. About forty minutes after the explosion, before leaving the ship, I went round the vessel below, with Mr Porter, the chief steward, who had an ' electrictorch, and satisfied myself that there were no more men in the ehip.”

The chief naval officer ox the district said that one boat picked up the afternoon following the disaster contained 17 frozen bodies. Another boat contained five survivors but of twenty, the remainder being frozen. The jury returned a verdict of death from shock and exposure. There were at least three New Zealanders on board, of whom two lost their lives. Engineer-Sub-Lieutenant H. C. Hurley, Nelson, is in London, but Engineer-Lieutenant-Commander George K. Rutledge, E.N.E., and Sub-Lieuten-ant Laurence W. Bell, R.N.E., were lost. An ex-student of School of Engineering, Canterbury College, Commander Rutledge w &b a son of Mr C. Rutledge, of St. Albans, Christchurch. He had been au engineer on board'the lonic and the Cedric, and when War was declared he was transferred to a warship as engineer-lieutenant. His further promotion came last October. Lieutenant Bell joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in the early days of the war, and served in the Field Ambulance as a private. On November 27, 1916, he was granted his discharge, in order to take a commission in the Royal Naval Reserve.