The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1914-11-17
.EYE WITNESSES TELL
OF END OF AUDACOUS
Mammoth Vessel Was Disabled
by Striking Mine.
is FINALLY BLOWN UP.
Musicians on the Olympic Reach
New York With First
Direct News.

New York, Nov. 15.-Two men
who saw the British superdread-
nough Audacious lying helpless in a
heavy sea some 27 miles northeast
of Lough Swilly, shortly after she
had struck mine on October 27, ar
rived here today on the steamer
New York from Liverpool To the
stories that previously had reached
here of the loss Of the warship they
added numerous details. One state
ment they made was that the Audac-
:ous might have been floating TODAY
had she not been blown up by the
British cruiser Liverpool at a. m.
on the day she was disabled by the
mine
The men who told the story were
James Rupert Beames, leader of the
orchestra on the White Star liner
Olympic. which rescued the crew of
the Audacious and made fruitless
EFFORTS to tow her to shoal water.
and Hugh Griffiths, one of the or
chestra's musicians. At first both
declined to discuss the event, declar-
ing that they had been put upon
their honor by the admiralty to say
nothing. When they saw the posi-
tive statements that had been pub
lished here regarding the disaster.
however, they concluded they were
breaking no faith with the govern
ment by admitting the battleship had
gone down.
SHIP is SIGHTED.
The story of Beames, who was
helped from time to time by Grifiths.
was substantially as follows:
I'VE sighed Torey island at 10 a.
m. on Tuesday, October 27. An
hour later one of the stewards came
to our quarters and SAID, You better
get up on deck and see two lovely
warships.' We ran up on deck
The day was dark and cloudy and n
stiff westerly gale was blowing. Off
our starboard side we saw a big
battleship and heavy seas breaking
over her. She was flying a code dis
tress signal.
"As we approached the other war
ship, which we learned later was the
cruiser Liverpool, came over to us
and at high speed crossed our bows.
Hardly had she crossed when she
turned and recrossed and kept up
this sort of serptine movement for
a half hour.
1T was said on board later that
this performance was for the pur-
pose OF clearing the way for the
White Star ship. at that time the
only agent in those waters capable
of towing the Audacious to q shoal
haven.
1t was decided that the Liverpool
could better risk hitting a mine than
could the Olympic.
RUSH OF VOLUNTEERS.
"The order was given to man our
lifeboats and a call issued for vol
unteers. The Olympic's crew actu-
ally fought to get into the boats, so
eager were they to do something
for Their country and for the sailors
on the doomed Audacious. When
one OF the boats hit the water they
found In ii a little bell boy, IL years
old.
THE seas were high and it took
the men in the lifeboats 20 minutes
to get over to the Audacious, 500
yards away. We plainly could see
the crew at quarters. They we're
the calmest body Of men / have over
seen. The captain was walking up
and down the deck calmly, with his
hands behind his back.
There were about 900 on the
Audacious but only $50 were taken
to the Olympic. About 400 were
transferred to other war craft by
the Olympic's IA Iifeboats. About
200 were left on board to assist fin
handling the lines and cables. while
the Olympic made her futile efforts
to take the Audacious in tow. These
men were taken of to Liverpool in
the Olympic's lifcboats when 10 was
decided the Audacious should be
blown up and sunk"
END OF THE CRAFT.
The Olympic dropped anchor off
Lough swiftly at s p. m. An hour