OCR Text |
Show THRILLING TALE TOLD BY OBBDSSO SURVIVOR Sinking of the Elder-Dempster Liner by Huns Is Vividly Described. Many Men and Women Go to Their Death Under a Capsized Lifeboat. By HUGH CUEEAN, Universal News Service Staff Correspondent. Corre-spondent. CORK, March 1. The tlory of tho torpedoing of 1 lie Elfler-Deinpt.ter liner Obbosso, one of the mo.r vivni of the war, has remained untold for more than a. year, owing to the censorship regulations. regula-tions. Bound from the Gold Coast with 200 passengers, carrying scores of South African negroes who wero thrown into wild panic that nuido disciplined rescue work impossible, tho Obbosso was torpedoed tor-pedoed 100 miles off tho Irish coast, in the dead of night. Of 500 on board 1-0, including several men of nolo in England's Eng-land's colonial administration, w ere lost. V. Gibbs of -London, one of the surviving surviv-ing passengers, gives the following vivid description of the sinking: Wo assembled at our boat, station and into No, J boat with me got about thirtv ineu and twenty women, including includ-ing a" Major General Collins, a Mr. Whit-taker, Whit-taker, who was one of the Germans of tho Gold Coast, and several other prominent promi-nent men. The lowering away went off all right until wo were within tsix feet of the water, when the negro at the after fall ceased lowering. The result was that the boat's end was iu the air , and her bow in the water, aud all tho time the Obbosso was rushing along at a speed of" about twelve knots. We were iu that position for some minutes, roaring out to lower away, but without) result,' until somebody on tho deck cut the ropo with a knife. Thrown Into the Sea. "Immediately we wore tilted end up and all thrown into the sea. Wheu I rose to the surface. I found that 1 was imprisoned beneath tho capsized boat with about twenty men and leu or twleve women. Try as we would none of us could succeed in diving clear, aud many decided to climb on to tho seats and "rest there with their faces toward the upturned bottom of tho boat. "Gradually tho air began to get foul and iu tho small space death was almost al-most sure unless we could succeed in breaking the sides of the boat iu order to let in tho fresh air. 1 saw a ray of moonlight through the sides of tho boat and got to work. For fully half an hour I worked with' desperation in order to tear open a. hole, and cvoutu-allv cvoutu-allv succeeded, aud later was able to make tho holo sufficiently big enough to get my head through. "Tho fresh air gave us relief for a while, but little by little the peoplo beneath be-neath got weaker and began to din off. T heard men sav their parting good by to their wives. Mr. Whittaker, who was ou a seat near me, a shod his wife, to slip off and they would trv to clivo clear together. Kins 'replied: Co, I am too sick; I can't, do it.' ' Verv well,' replied re-plied Mr. WhiMakcr, ' T will slay and die with von.' They then spoke of their former liappv life together and said their last farewell to one another aud died shortly after. Others AH Drowned. "After about, four hours 1 was (lie oulv living person under tho boat, and corpses were floating about mo in tlio water. 1 kept mv head in tho hide all Hie time. and. with the rise and fall of the sea, the. jagged boards cut my neck ami torn mv hands. I was in a, desperate desper-ate plight, and every moment was liko a year. After seven hours iu this position posi-tion a destroyer camo along and picked me up." Another first-class passenger wdio was in the "So. 1 boat of tho Obbosso described de-scribed how, when tho boat was upset, be got clear, mid, on coming to the surface, sur-face, succeeded, with the ship's butcher and a negro, in petting onto the upturned up-turned boat, after thiee-rpiarters of no hour's struggle in the water, lie could boar the groans of the people underneath under-neath and vet, could do nothing to help. A stewardess found herself the only white- person in a boat which was launched with about thirty negroes They were stricken by fear and would not row (dear of the sinking ship, so she was compelled to (dub them with a. stout stick on Hie head until they obeved her commands. |