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Show U-BOAT SINKS U. S. TROOP SHIP; NEARLY 270 LOST; 1912 RESCUED r : - : - . . - T . , , TUSCANIA SENT DOWN OFF COAST ' OF IRELAND Army Contingent, Composed Com-posed Chiefly of Michigan Michi-gan and Wisconsin National Na-tional Guardsmen, on British Liner, Convoyed by British Warships; Engineers and Airmen Aboard. , LIST OF RESCUED MAY PROVE LARGER Wash ington Officials Remain at Their Desks Late at Night Waiting for Further News; Number of Men From Camp Lewis on Ill-fated Ill-fated Ship. WASHINGTON. Feb. 6. The Cunard iiner Tuscania, carrying American soldiers, lias been torpedoed and sunk off the Irish coast, but official reports late tonight said IPiC of the officers and men ha been saved and indicated that the list of rescued might prove even larger. The troops, composed chiefly of detachments of Michigan and Wisconsin national guardsmen, were traveling on the Tuscania. Tus-cania. a British vessel, under convoy of Sritish warships. A brief dispatch to the war department from London early this evening announced the disaster and reported the landing of only 1100 survivors. This was made public shortly afrer l o'clock, and for more than twu hours it a feared, tiiat probably l-jmt men. in-duding members of the liner's crew, had gone down. "When a message came to the state department de-partment from the embassy at Londoa saying at 11 o'clock tonight 1?1C of the Americans had been accounted for, the joy of officials almost sept aTvay tha distress occasioned by the earlier news. Hope for the Missing. The first 1100 survivors were landed at Lame and Buncrana, two widely-separated Irish ports, and this, coupled wi;h the evident fact that rescue ships were at hand quickly, gave rise to hope that nearly everybody on board the Tuscania except those injured by the explosion might have been saved. The president. Secretary Baker and. in fact, all official Washington were up lata waiting for further news. Only the briefest brief-est dispatches were received and none gave details of the attack on the liner. Even the time was missing, but it was assumed that it occurred early this morning, morn-ing, as the first message was filed at London at Z o'clock this afternoon, probably prob-ably within an hour after the relief ships reached the Irish coast. The president was at the theater when the news was received re-ceived and he was not told until he returned re-turned to the White House. In the meantime mean-time the war. navy ajid state departments had sent urgent messages by wireless and cable instructing their representatives in England and Ireland to forward every available fact immediately. Units Aboard Vessel. Because of the nature of the military organizations carried by the ship, the war department announced that i: would be impossible to say definitely what troops were aboard until the list of sur- (Continue. on Page Trro.) ' TUSCVM SEKT DOWN OFF COAST OF IRELAND (Continued from Page One.) vhurs was received. Later, however, tne adjutant general's office made the lirfi public. It follow: Headquarters detachment and companies compa-nies D, E and F of tiie 2uth engineers. 170th engineer train. 107th engineer train. !o7tii military pulice. 107th supply train. No. 100 aero squadron. l.jSth aero equadron. 21-th aero squadron. Deplacenient detachment Nos. 1 and 2 of the S.'nd division. Fifty-one casual officers. The 32nd division Is composed of national na-tional guard troops from Michigan and Wisconsin. The division trained at Camp McArthui'. Texas. Tiie 107th engineers was composed of the First battalion of Michigan engineers; the 107th military police was made up r'rom the Fourth and Sixth Wisconsin infantry, and the 107th supply train from the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Wisconsin infantry. Most of Men Guardsmen. Thus, most of the soldiers are former Wisconsin and Michigan guardsmen, except ex-cept those in tiie aero squadron, who probably were recruited from all parts of the country. Neither the dispatch to the war department de-partment nor that to the state department depart-ment referred to the fate of the members of the Tuscanla's crew. Undoubtedly many of them were saved, and when all reports are In officials hope that the loss of life will be remarkably small. The liner, which is not a regular transport, trans-port, was under convoy and the warships war-ships were quickly alongside for rescue work when the torpedo struck. The first news was given here in this terse announcement from the war department: depart-ment: "The war department has been officially offi-cially advised that "the steamship Tus-cania Tus-cania was torpedoed and sunk and that survivors numbering 1100, as far as could be ascertained, were landed at Bun-crana Bun-crana and Larne. in Ireland. There was a total of 2179 United States troops' on this vessel. No name of persons lost has been reported to the war department depart-ment and no name of survivors was reported. re-ported. Additional particulars are promised prom-ised as soon as received." Figures Conflict. The state department's dispatch gave the number of soldiers on board as 2173, six less than the war department's report. re-port. It told of plans promptly made for caring for the survivors. The state department de-partment Issued this statement: "The latest advices received by the state department from the embassy at London regarding the Tuscania is that at 11 p. m., February 6. the latest information infor-mation was that 1912 officers and men on the Tuscania were accounted for, out of 2173. "The ambassador has sent an assistant military attache and another army officer of-ficer to Belfast, Ireland. Representatives of the American Red Cross and the T. M. C. A. also have gone, with full power to spend all the money needed and authorizations au-thorizations from the British Red Cross tp use their equipment at Belfast. The ambassador further reports that the lord mayor at Belfast is giving- all the aid possible." First to Be Sunk. The Tuscania was the first ship carrying carry-ing American troops to Europe to be sunk by German submarines, but the American transport Antilles was torpedoed torpe-doed and sunk in the war zone while returning re-turning to the United States from France and fourteen soldiers were lost, with 156 other persons, Including' several members of the naval armed guard. American warships convoying transports trans-ports to France last June twice fought off submarine attacks. Since then, however, how-ever, there has been no report of an attack at-tack on a ship carrying- American troops to Europe. Recently the navy department has feared that the Germans would make a concerted effort to Intercept transports, the recall of many of the submarines to their bases being interpreted, as preliminary prelim-inary to such a campaign. The position of the Tuscania when she was sunk is taken to indicate that she was bound to England. Bound to England. Her sinking definitely discloses that British ships are being used to carry American troops abroad, supplementing American tonnage. This fact has been intimated before and probably arises frorn the decision of the supreme war council to make every effort to augment General Pershing's army during the present year. Navy officials have insisted that despite de-spite the most careful plans and efforts to safeguard transports, there was always al-ways a chance that a troop ship would stumble upon a lurking U-boat, and the general belief tonight was that this is what happened in this case. The same regulations as to life-saving apparatus govern the movement of American troops on a British vessel as would govern their passage on an American Ameri-can craft. Those regulations, which are rigidly enforced, provide for sufficient lifeboat and liferaft capacity for every man aboard the ship, even if one-hi f of the boats are rendered useless through the listing of the ship when she is struck, Buncrana, at which survivors from the Tuscania were landed, is located on Lough S willy, on the northern coast of Ireland, Ire-land, twelve miles from Ijondonderry-Lough Ijondonderry-Lough Swiily is a long, narrow bay running run-ning in from the Atlantic ocean. Larne. where other survivors were landed frorn the vessel, is on the northeast north-east coast of Ireland, twenty-three miles from Belfast. It is a north channel port. Tho approximate distance by water between be-tween the two ports is one hundred miles. " . |