CABLE NEWS

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2176, 28 April 1908, Page 2

CABLE NEWS

COLLISION AT SEA.

CRUISER OVERTURNS.

SPLENDID DISCIPLINE OF CREW

United Press Association-Copyright w , LONDON, Apri,^. When tlie blizzard was at its height on Saturday afternoon the American liner Saint Paul, outward bound from Southampton, crashed, into tho port side of the cruiser Gladiator, off Yarmouth, Isle of Wight. The Gladiator heeled over, and was beached in about twenty minutes. Tho Admiralty report that tho crew landed, except three, who were drown, ed. : -

A lieutenant is missing. Tho Saint Paul sustained little damage. Her bow plates were buckled. She returned to Southampton. Captain Lumsdan was the last mail to leave the Gladiator.

Splendid discipline was maintained. The men stood at their quarters, and only leapt aboard when the sea threatened to engulf them. When the vessel capsized all hands climbed on the bottom, which was out of the water.

A passenger on the Saint Paul reports that he heard the sailors on tho overturned keel sing “Sons of tho Brave.”

OFFICER AND THIRTY MEN MISSING.

(Received April 27, 11.58 p.ui.) LONDON, April 27. The Gladiator was returning from Portaud to Spithead in a snow- vstorm. When steaming past Port Victoria, well inside tlie first point, at a speed of 10 knots, the Saint Paul was sighted, anproaching rather faster, about 260 yards away. Orders were given on the liner to reverse the engines to full speed astern, but a collision was unavoidable. The liner’s bow crashed into the Gladiator’s starboard side nearly amidships, cutting her up to her centre line into the engine-room. The liner then went astern, and the cruiser began to list heavily. The Gladiator steamed for tho -beach, taking ground about 400 yards from tho shore, and then turned completely on tlie starboard side, the stern being almost dead shore. When she heeled over a number of tlie crew jumped into the water, and, with others who were thrown into the water, tried to.swim ashore. The rest of the crew clambered over to the port sido, which was standing well out of the water, and there remained until they were rescued by -boats. Tho inrush of the sea into the boiler room, which followed tlie liner’s backing out, is said to have caused the boilers to explode, scalding and injuring many. The closing of the water-tight doors prevented the cruiser from foundering. With the fore boilers and tho ongines working at high pressure, she got close in shore before she became unmanageable. A stoker who was below at the time states that tlie first warning was the crashing of the liner’s bow into tho messroom, killing one man on the spot. ... The crew displayed perfect discipline, quietly awaiting their turn to be taken ashore. The liner’s fore bulkhead averted very serious damage, though the Saint Paul’s stern was injured both above and below the waterline. It is known that six of the Gladiator’s crew are drowned or have died of injuries. Six more injured are in the hospital. Lieut. Graves and 30 hands are missing. The Saint Paul had 500 passengers. The Gladiator is on a soft bottom in a sheltered position. It is expected that salvage operations will be successful. The crew numbered 300, and it is feared that the missing have perisli•ed.'