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Show lliEE ii Si -- I Transport Otranto Hits Rock on the Scottish Coast Following Collision Col-lision With Steamer. i Three Hundred Men Taken Ta-ken to Port by British Destroyer, Which Rescued Res-cued the Survivors. A SCOTTISH PORT, Wednes-day, Wednes-day, Oct. 9. The following Americans, Ameri-cans, survivors of the Otranto, all of them privates, have been landed here: Charles E. Smithson, David R. Roberts, George S. Taylor, Eaxle G-arver, Steward Early, Noah Taylor, Tay-lor, William Coouey, Robert F. Scha-un, . Thomas A. Kelly, Ben Smith, Robert Brown. Joseph S. Richards, William Richards, Evnil Petersen,- Joseph M. Tollock, Sergeant Ser-geant Charles MacDonald, all from the Fort Screven automatic replace-! replace-! ment draft, and John E. Wean, casual company, Camp Merritt, New Jersey. A BRITISH PORT. Thursday. Oct. 10. A large number of American troops have been lost as the result of the sinking, sink-ing, of the transport Otranto in the North channel between tlie Scottish and Irish coasts in a collision with the steamer Kashmir. The Otranto after the collision was dashed to piece? on the rocks off the south Scottish coast with a probable loss of 372 American soldiers. Of. the 6?;t American soldiers on board the Otranto. 340 were landed. Seventeen were rescued alive at llay, leaving 372 unaccounted for. In Terrific Gale. Three hundred and one men w-ere taken to Belfast by the British destroyer Mounsey, the only vessel which made an attempt at rescue in the, terrific gale when the Kashmir, another vessel in the convoy with the Otranto rammed the Otranto amidships. Seventeen men were picked up alive on the Scottish coast. The Otranto and the other vessels of the convoy were battling with the. heavy seas and high winds Sunday morning. The storm was so severe and the visibility visibil-ity so bad that the Kashmir, a former Peninsular and Oriental liner, crashed into the Otranto squarely amidships. The Kashmir hacked away badly damaged, dam-aged, but was able to make port. As the bows of the Kashmir were pulled from the great hole in the side of the Otranto. the water rushed in, but for a time it did not serve to stop the engines. en-gines. The Otranto tried to proceed, but made no headway against the gale in her crippled condition. Within a short time the water put out her fires and the Otranto drifted helplessly help-lessly toward t he rocky ca pt of Ilay isla nd. where most of tiie Tucca nia victims vic-tims met their death. Destroyer Appears. Thirty minutes after the era sh the Brit ish destroyer Mounrey, hrsel f dani-aged dani-aged by the heavy seas, appeared out of the ha zc in answer to the rii.st rcss calls of the Otranto. When the dcMroyrr maneuvered to get alongside, t'aptain Pa v id son of the Otranto warned Liruten-ant Liruten-ant Craven, commanding the destroyer, not to make the attempt. When it was sicn that Craven would make the attempt anyway, ibe men were ordered to remove their shoes and hc;n y clothing and t ry to ya ve themselves a : best they could. The deMn-yer sr-.od .ff about a hundred hun-dred feet and then gradually came nearer, near-er, against the ' grvat odds of high waves and the wind, v. hieh threatened 1 momentarily to carry her cut i rely aw ay ! from the Ot ranto or d;i:-h her to pieces j atrainst the side of the wounded vessel. 1 The Otra mo t rur the rocks Sumht y j night south of Sahgo bay. J'iay .-'kuid. j an uninhabited section, where the coast lino in many piace? rise1! straight out of (Continued on Page Nine) wwwwwwwwwi iw mm mm y 1 1, .-rv 32 AMERICANS DUflWi AT SEA (Continued from Fago One.) the water to the rv-V pc.iks n'.ny f-c: abve. As the deMroer reared the 1c of the Otranto the men hrc.n It Ju:np fn-m thirty f forty feet fp-'n her d-.-.. The more exrerten-ed ea.l'.rr of the i r.-s of the slemr had r.fr.-r .u.-cvv il-.in the 5"'diers. mar.y of w h I'll h.d li. . r sen the until thi. Trip. As the c1e ' "o er ,.fer-d (m.t-d t':c 1 :de of the e'ean-er n ac of th r-.-i , eape-i too n't:.-W v epd r.v..e.J V r r-i r-i onint; and dropped ietw.'i h '. Some of the." d:r iirc.red n the iw.--. but others of them ere ,ird crushed to dearh l.t..ii the t.?. I the lifeNavs which hd be.v: Jor,.,", t- 'act as buffers. The de!rocr was h.vi-! h.vi-! ly battered. The capfam of the dc-tr'e- e,i. h J time It was brushed ,ay from the ."i.l of the "trant', ak'a'.n wou'.d puh ii'-ar enough for manv more men to jurrp to I the deck of his es.el. He described ; ' a veritable rain the number of men l.ir.d-on l.ir.d-on the de.troyer. Many of those who reached the dc.-v.s of the essel suffered broken N.r.-s or otherwise were hurt. Those who niiv'-'cd the deck of the deatrocr went to almost Ins'ant death. pour times the battered dc.troyer came alopp.tde and each time the previous Scenes Were repeated. l the end of the fourth trip she had " 1 '' A nx-r'- a n. of the crew, thirty Frpn. it j;i"r" and op.. Brili.-h officer on board. The how wa-. fu'l and. having done all poib. ?iie started for port. Numbe'-s of bodies today were beinc washed up rapid!" on the shore. It wa i reported that 175 had been counted hi noon and nearly ail of them had been identified. Tragic Moment. A seaman on the Otranto dor:bcd the most trade moment of the disaster as that when the order came for the men to Jump and "ave themselves. The dr. stroyer looked a very small bo! alone-Hide alone-Hide the former Orient liner and many landsmen among the American troops. thouEht themselves safer aboard the larger vessel. This was fatal to many of "Vhe victims are to be collected at the most suitable place and buried there. A boat left Liverpool today with material for coffins, fifty laborers and carpenters carpen-ters and chaplains to conduct the funerals. fu-nerals. The crave of every man will be marked and charted. There were a few cases amor.tr the dead where identification was delayed. F.verv man had worn an identification tag on his wrist or neck, hut in some Instances these were torn off and It was necessary to take finger prints of tnc men. Swept Into Sea. Aji instance of the many rgscuei by the Mounsey was that of T. L. ..amp-bell ..amp-bell a Memphis lawyer, and a Hcerctap of the Y M r. A. He weighs 220 pounds He was' perched on the otranto's rR tl awaiting a chance to spring upon the droy?r the third time the Moun.scy came up. As he leaped the M"""" lurched away and Instead of lar ilin-' In the middle of the deck, as he bad hoped to do. one of his legs caught in he cable the side of the destroyer, (.ampbell pulled himself aboard uninjured P -Just when the destroyer was p iling away the last time." said Campbell to-dy to-dy "the men lined the rails or .stood on the after deck waving a farewell. A huge wave struck a crowd of al.ou eighteen privates on the after deck Hid a dozen of them were swept into lie sea to sure death, as it was Impossible to save persons from waves running sixty to seventy feet high " |
