Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-05-26 | Page 1 | Two Utah Men Die, One Safe, on Moldavia

10 UTAH MEN DIE, ONE All Three Were Members of National Army and Left With First Draft Early in Fall. EXPLODING CHARGE IS CAUSE OF CASUALTIES Men Aboard Transport Enter En-ter Lifeboats and Get Away in Less Than Quarter of an Hour. Two Utah boys, members of B company. com-pany. Fifty-eighth regiment of infantry of the United States army, gave up their lives in the explosion of the torpedo which sank the English troop ship Moldavia Mol-davia off the coast of England Thursday morning. One Salt Lake boy, Victor Mi-. Mi-. lano, $-as among those saved. They were ta the contingent of -ISO American soldiers sol-diers on board the vessel. William A. Brown, 22 years of age, of Hoytsvjle, son of William J. Brown, was one of the victims. He left Hoytsvllle in the first draft last fall and went with the Utah contingent to Camp Lewis, Wash, William A. Brown of Hoytsville, son of William A. Brown, a farmer residing near that town, in Summit county, was 22 years of age. He left Hoytsville with the first draft last fall and went with the Utah contingent to Camp Lewis, Washington. Wash-ington. Young- Brown was the nephew of Mrs. Florence Crittenden, wife of Bishop Irwin Crittenden of the L, D. S. church at Hoytsville. The young man was very popular in Hoytsville and his army career was being followed with keen interest. He got his training both at Camp Lewis and at Florida training camps. He had notified his family of his sailing sail-ing and they were awaiting word of his safe arrival in France yesterday when the official telegram came from the war department announcing his death. The death of young Brown comes especially hard to his parents, as they now have but one boy, 12 years of age, left, while there are seven surviving sisters. sis-ters. f The other victim was Thaddeus Hodges of Mount Carmel, in Kane county, another an-other of. the gallant Utah youths from the agricultural districts who showed their patriotism shortly after the declaration of war with Germany. According to his brothe-r, Emil Milano of 22S West Broadway, Salt Lake City, Victor Milano, also of this city, and a member of A company, Fifty-eighth Infantry, In-fantry, United States army, was aboard the English transport Moldavia. Fortunately, Fortu-nately, the Salt Laker was among the cool and well -disciplined troops who escaped es-caped in the lifeboats. Victor Milano, who is 24 years of age, entered the national army in September, Sep-tember, going to American Lake, Wash. He went from Camp Lewis to Camp Greene, S. C, and then went to Camp Mills to embark. Just before leaving the United States, Victor Milano wrote a postal to his brother in Salt Lake. He told of his journey from the south through the big cities of the east, and asked for news from his many friends in Salt Lake. Emil Milano has three other brothers in the Italian national service and he himself him-self has received a call from his local board at Butte, Mont. Fifty-three Lost. LONDON, May 25. With the exception of fifty-three American soldiers, all on board tho British troopship Moldavia wero saved and have been landed at a southern south-ern British port. No officers' names are among the list of missing and it contains con-tains the names of only two non-commissioned officers. Less than a quarter of an hour after the Moldavia had been torpedoed off the southeast coast of England on Thursday-morning Thursday-morning virtually every man had gone over the sides of the vessel into the lifeboats. life-boats. Edwin and Clyde Bosley of North Troy, Vt., leaped from the deck and were drowned. Had it not been for this, the losses, which are given officially as. flfty-sbc flfty-sbc American soldiers', would have been confined to those killed by the explosion of the torpedo. The Bosley brothers were on guard when the ship was struck. There was a sharp list and they evidently believed be-lieved the ship was turning over. Describes Torpedoing. Captain Johnson, an American Infantry officer who was on board tho Moldavia, gave a Daiiy Telegraph representative this account of the sinking: "The ship was struck just forward of the engines on the port side, i All the troops were In their bunks, sleeping In their uniforms. There was a loud explosion explo-sion and then the ship's whistle was blown, which was a signal for everybody to come on deck. The men had been assigned as-signed to particular boats and boat drill had been held every day. The men as- (Coutinued on Page Ten.) 19 UTAH MEN GO DWlTHMDill (Continued from Page Ona.) semblcd In perfect order. Their discipline was -splendid, the best I ever saw. "The Moldavia listed to port, but righted herself and ran on for about fifteen fif-teen minutes to avoid being hit again. Then she began to sink steadily. Orders were given to lower the boats and rafts and we got off. "Destroyers had been circling around us all the time and as soon as the Moldavia Mol-davia was struck they .dropped several depth charges. No second torpedo was fired and we saw nothing of the submarine. subma-rine. We remained in the lifeboats until the ship sank, when we were taken on board the destroyers. "As soon as the -men got aboard the boats and rafts they began laughing and singing, and when the ship sank they gave three cheers. "Of those missing two are corporals and the others privates. T believe all were killed by the explosion."