Salt Lake Tribune | 1918-11-10 | Page 1 | 19 Lost as U. S. Boat Hits Mine

Forty-seven Men Landed and Nineteen Are Re-i Re-i ported Missing. OCEAN CITY. Md., Nov. 9. The 5000-ton 5000-ton American cargo steamer Saetia, bound from a French port to rhiladel-phia, rhiladel-phia, struck a mine twenty-five miles off the Marylandcoast at 0:05 a. m. today and sank twenty minutes later. Nineteen members of the crew are missing, forty-seven having be.en landed here this afternoon and eighteen more having been taken off a raft at 9 o'clock tonight by a patrol boat. The chief engineer, Charles Tournler of Hartford, Conn., was the only one of the rescued who was injured. Mis leg was crushed between two lifeboats in the heavy sea that has been running today. One of the patrol boats capsized in the sea, but its occupants were rescued. Destroyers and coast-guard boats' are searching the vicinity for traces of rafts which may be afloat with the rest of the" crew, although it Is feared that the men on duty in the Saetia'y engine-room were killed by one of the explosions. The sinking of the ship was preceded by an explosion a few minutes after S O clock, A few minutes, later two more violent explosions followed. Although the ship was light, having .lust left an American convoy off the Delaware Capes, she went down within twenty minute?, according to her master. Captain Kyneiv, who landed at this place. The Saetia left its convoy returning from France three days ago. and was hound for Philadelphia. Just twenty-five miles off this place she ran into the mine. Before the ship could hack, the first explosion ex-plosion threw half the crew into the sea. Captain Lynch Immediately ordered "all hands on deck," but before lifeboats coujd be lowered the cold salt WttteT poured in on the boilers, uausing Kddi-tional Kddi-tional explosions. A few minutes later ! the ship had settled In about 30 feet of i water. Although It had been rumored that the Saetia had been torpedoed, naval an-I an-I Ihqrities here scout the idea. The stories j related by the crew also tended lo dls-I dls-I prove it.