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Show oo THRILLING STORY OF WAR NURSE Chicago Member of Red Cross Gives Vivid Description of Sinking of the Brindisi. HOW BRAVE MEN DIED Decks Covered With Dead and Awash With Blood Survivor Sur-vivor Three Hours in j Water. Athens, Feb. 2, via London, Feb 4, 5:05 a. m. A vivid description of the thrilling experiences in connection with the sinking of the Italian steamship steam-ship Brindisi, which recently struclc 'a -nine" In the' Adrlaticris given'by Maria Leinois of Irving Park, Chicago, Chi-cago, one of the Red Cross nurses who survived. She said: "The steamship, with her decks covered cov-ered with dead, sank with hideous rapidity I was shot into the water which was full of struggling youths trying to keep afloat but disappearing one by one within sight of land. "We struck a mine at 9:30 o'clock in the morning and the ship began to sink Immediately We tried to lower a boat, but tho ship heeled over so that everybody In the boat was thrown into the water. Miss Hample, my companion, could not swim and never came up I managed to scramble back aboard the Brindisi where I found some 200 Montenegrins who were unable to swim. Men Cheat the Foe. "These men said they would not die by the enemy's hand. They sang their national anthem and then one squad shot the others and finally killpd themselves. Tho decks were covered with dead and were awash with blood When tho ship began to founder, I slipped back into the water and swam to a plank on which several men were clinging but who dropped off one by one. Finally, after being three hours in the water, I was picked up and taken to San Giovanni di Me-dua Me-dua "As soon as the 143 persons rescued were safely ashore, the Montenegrins lined up and re-sang the national anthem. an-them. While the men were singing an Austrian aeroplane squadron bombarded bom-barded the town, killing eighteen of those who had just been saved. "From San Giovanni di Medua we walked to Scutari and sought to join the Serbian staff at Plavinca, but six days later the evacuation of the town took place. Guests or King. "King Nicholas of Montenegro fetched us to Scutari in his boat. He is a kindly and democratic old man who seems to understand. "From Scutari we walked 'five days through sleet and snow over detestable detest-able roads, along which the hunger-weakened hunger-weakened Serbians died one after another. an-other. "Reaching Durazzo, seven pursuing Austrian aeroplanes bombarded the town where the remnants of the Serbian Serbi-an army were so crowded that they were unable to escape the missiles. Many were killed and others wounded. "From Durazzo we accompanied the Serbs to Avlona and Corfu and thence to Athena." |