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Show SHIP DISASTER IS CONFIRMED British Super - Dreadnought Audacious Lies at Bottom of Ocean Off North Ireland. NEARLY ALL RESCUED Great Battleship Was Hit by Torpedo or Disabled by Mine Olympic Gives Aid. New Yrk, Nov 14. Rumors of disaster to the British super-dreadnought Audacious, which have persisted persist-ed ever since the White Star liner Olympic, diverted from her course, arrived ar-rived at' IvOugh Swilly on October 29, are confirmed in mail advices received today by the Associated PresB from a point in Ireland. After a career of less than two years, the Audacious, third in tonnage and armament of His .Majesty's warships, war-ships, lies at the bottom of the ocean off the north coast of Ireland She was hit by a torpedo or disabled by a mine, October 27. With the possible exception of one or two men. the whole crew of 800 officers and men was rescued by small boats from the Olympic. White Star Crew Reccues Men. j The rescue wn8 made in a rough sea thruutf'i brilliant and daring seamanship seaman-ship on the part of the White Star crww . The battleship's cry for assistance way caught by the wireless operator of the Olympic, which wag only about ten miles distant The steamer rushed forward at full speed Volun : teers were called for and double the number necessary to man the life boats responded Thn crippled battle-ship battle-ship was reached in a few minutes : after 9 o cloc k and before noon alii but 100 of her men haa beon trans- ! id rod. By the that time the battle-1 ship had a decided list at the stern j wlit-re Just lelow the water line she: had received her wound Two of her engines were unharmed but the one aft was put out of commission After taking olf all the officers and ( crew who would leave the ship, Cap tain Haddock of the Olympic turned I his uttentlon to an attempt to save the warship A cable was ghen her but It snapped as It tightened. Mean-1 time the bulkheads began to give way and It was soon apparent that It i would be impossible to tow the ship or keep her afloat The cruiser Llv ' erpool and several warships had come up and stood by Late In the after noon It was decided to abandon the Audacious, and the officers and men who had remained on board were tak en off and the Audacious plunged stern first and In a moment had disappeared. dis-appeared. Explosion of Shells. The explosion Is supposed to have been caused bv shells set loose by the listing of the- battleship A bit of armor plate, torn from the slnkinc ship, struck the dock of the liver-pool, liver-pool, cutting the legs from unde.- a gunner, vho died In a short time The Auda.euR met her fate 25 miles off the Irish roast, which the Olympic was skirting The Olympic sailed 1 from New York for Glascow on October Octob-er 21 She had baen warned that there were German mines off Tory aland, and fear of these mines was the official explanation when she un- i expeetedlv put in to Lough Swilly The Olympic's passengers saw the mighty warrior sink. Then their ship turned her prow toward Lough Swilly Small craft cleared the route to make sure it was free of mines. From Octoluu 27 to November 2, the Olympic lay at Lourh Swilly. I Charles M Schwab waB the only pas-' senger who left the Olympic before i It docked at Belfast on November 2 Even officers of the White Star Line were not permitted to board the i 01y:nplc af Ixiugh Swilly and all supplies sup-plies were taken aboard by men of the navy After the steamer entered Belfast one of the waiters on board was arrested, charged with being a spy. Secrecy Enjoined by British. The Olympic cairif.' about 300 passengers. pas-sengers. Nearly 100 of these were English reservists. All passengers other than British were denied passage pas-sage fn.m Belfast to Liverpool and were compelled to go to Dublin, which Is an open port to take boats for l'"nr-land l'"nr-land Secrecy regarding the loss of the Audacious was enjoined upon the crew and passengers of the Olympic, who were urged to refrain from dls- niliflln rm i K In rr r A ..,.tw1 n n r . vuooiuj; ilit ti Ohcuj, I" ii'J I ii a v 'Jill plete investigation The crew of the Audicious was removed from the liner a6 soon as warships for the purpose were available "The crew of the Olvmpic was magnificent.1' mag-nificent.1' said one of the possengers. "A warship's crew could not have acted with greater courage and precision pre-cision Everything was in readiness for launching the boats as soon as the Olympic was within reach of the Audacious Auda-cious " Many of the passengers expressed the belief that the sinking of the Audacious Au-dacious possibly saved the Olympic, which might otherwise have entered a mine field, others held to the theory that a submarine torpedo entered the I w arship, basing their opinion on the I fact that she was wounded astern rather than forward which would more likely be the case If she had como In contact with submerged explosives. Serious Loss to Navy. The destruction of the Audacious is the most serious Blngle loss sustained sustain-ed by the British navy since the opening of hostilities. Only a few-British few-British warships outrank her in size and fighting equipment The Audacious had a displacement of 24,000 tons and was 696 feet In length Her armament consisted of ten 13.5-lnch guns. sixteen 4-Inch guns, four 3-pounders, with three 21-Inch 21-Inch torpedo tubes In her trials she developed a speed of 22.4 knots an hour, being slightly faster under trial than the other tessels of her clasB. no |