The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-10
THE CoBRA's WRECK.
PltifuI Details of the Loss of Eng
lands Crack Turbine Torpedo De-
stroyer.

lands Crack Turbine Torpedo De-
stroyer.
From the London Telegraph.
One Of the survivors has given a
graphic description of the wreck: 1--WE
struck" he said, Eat half-past seven
yesterday morning. The sea was high,
and there was a nasty cross sea. The
ship began to roll very heavily; in the
middle watch, at about 4 o'clock, it
was anyhow. Just about sunrise 1
went on deck to see what was up. She
continued to roll heavily, and then all
of sudden she struck the shoal and
the waves IN a moment broke over her.
Alarmed by the force of the shock,
every man came up on deck, and one
half of the men were in their berths
at the Time, and had no time to dress
themselves. The seas began to roll over
the forecastle, and a few moments
later the vessel broke in two, fore and
aft.
Somebody gave the order to clear
the boats away, though who it was 1
do not know, but 1 had already COM
and a dinghy aboard, and three collop-
sible boats. There was, however some
diflculty experienced with these, and
whether they were ever got out or not
do not know. The whaler and dinghy
were got out, but believe the whaler
was swamped; she never took the water
right. 1 myself cut the dinghy clear
and then, as the after part of the YES
sci was rising, I could see there was
! no hope of remaining on her, and we
launched the dinghy into the water
Directly she was in the water several
men boarded her from the ship Most
| of the remainder of the crew jumped
| into the water, from fear of being taken
down in the vortex as no one knew the
| depth of the water around; besides
| every moment an explosion of the
| boilers was feared. Several unfortunate
| fellows, however, remained on board
| till the last
Everything seemed to happen so
| quickly that I cannot tell how long we
were before we got clear. of the ship
and the wreckage, but I should think
it would be about five minutes. AS we
moved from the ship we picked up a
| number of the men in the water, till
we had nine aboard. Chief Engineer
| Percy was the last we took aboard as
we left the doomed ship, but three men
hung on to the side of the boat for
three hours before we dared take them
aboard, owing to the rough sea and
| the imminent danger of swapping the
| dinghy which is only built to hold
| eight men. l had, however, thrown all
the tackle overheard that was not alb
| solutely necessary, and we had remain
| pg two SOULS and two oars.
| when / took a last look at the ship
she was lying awash on her after part,
| and her fore part was standing up al
| most vertical like a beacon. AS We
| rowed away from the ship we kept
on passing bodies of drowned men, and
l fear that all the ships crew and con-
| tractors men who were not saved in
the dinghy were drowned. Lifebelts
were no use; we rowed all day, but we
| were unable to make much Roadway,
| for fear of being swamped. We en-
| deavored to get in the track of steamers
| and tried to attract attention by wav-
ing a stockers towel at the end of a
boathook, but several steamers passed
| without noticing us. At last, after a
weary and trying ten hours in an open
boat, we were rescued by the P. and o.
Harrington
Stoker's Dramatic Story.
The dramatic story of his rescue has
been told by Stoker Collins, who was
|
dinghy, a considerable time after the
wreck. Collins, it may be mentioned
some six weeks ago lost his father
who was drowned when the Oceanic
ran down the Kingcora. Collins says:
Il was on duty in the stokehold when
the vessel struck. The water began tc
pour in almost Immediately, and, com
ing into contact with the boilers, caus-
ed great clouds of steam to arise Rush.
ing up to the deck in my trousers and
singlet, accompanied by other men who
were below, a thrilling spectacle met
my gaze. Waves were breaking over
the doomed ship, and men, with cries
and shouts, We're making in a body for
the ships whaler.
Hastily snatching life belt, went
in the same direction, and found a
place in the boat. Others tumbled in
one on the other, without regard To
the appealing cries of those already in
the boat, warning them that the whaler
would be overturned. l estimated that
some forty or fifty men rushed into
the boat, with the result that it over
turned, and the whole of it's living
freight was thrown into the raging
sea. found that my leg had been in
jured in the confusion, but l struck out
for the dinghy, and chung to the stern
with two others. The occupants of the
dinghy dare not take me aboard until
calmer water was reached, and il was
fully an hour afterward that | was
dragged in, thoroughly exhausted, and
unable to hold on any longer. was the
last men to be taken into the dinghy.
Meanwhile the other unfortunate
men who had been thrown into the see
from the whaler struggled hard fol