South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1914-11-16
GIVE DETAILS Of
DESTRUCTION Of
BRITISH WARSHIP
Two Musicians From Olympic
Tell of Disaster That Robbed
British Navy of Dread
n.ught AudaCiCuS.

sinking OF II. NJ :. Audacious and Of
the rescue or her crew of 800 men ~
the life boats of the White star liner
olympic were brought here Sunday
By Hugh Griffiths and James Ran
dplph Beames. who arrived on the
New York.
Grifiths was bandmaster Of the
Olympic; Beames was a cornetist.
Both men watched the Olympic LABOR
from 10 o'clock in the morning until
o'clock in the evening in saving the
AudaciOus crew. There can no long
er be the slightest doubt that the
Audacious, one of the greatest ships
in his majesty's navy is now lying a
helpless, tangled mass Of steel at the
bottom of the sea, 20 miles west OF
Tory island.
These men confirm in practically
every detail the story OF the great
dreadnaught's sinking.
Since their narrative could be spok-
en- rather than written-they have been
able to supply n wealth of new details
as well as TO impart new and import
ant facts.
Was Part OF Squadron.
In their narrative these important
declarations stand out:
The Audacious was not cruising
alone when she was struck by the
mine She was in squadron. perhaps,
accompanied by as many az six other
ships of her own class.
When she was struck at 3 o'clock
on the morning OF october u. she
was deserted by her sister dread
noughts. This is a rule of the Brit
ish admiralty, since one mine is tax
EN- to indicate the presence of others.
She was not sunk by the explosion
of her own powder magazine, but
was destroyed by the British cruiser
4 - hot
would be impossible to save her.
when we left New York on the
Olympic" said Bandmaster Griffiths,
who commenced the fascinating story,
there was a queer premOnition which
hung over us all. SO thoroughly did
this take possession of us that before
we had been "a hours at sea many
IF the officers and crew placed bets of
to 1 that we could not reach elias
gov without some mishap.
ION October p we awoke to find
the Olympic plOughing along through
a light fog. A stiff wind was blowing
from the west, ruffling the sea ire
mendously.
Warships Are sighted.
"At II O'Clock that morning a
member of the crew thrust his head
"a port hole and exclaimed:
Look, look! There are two war
ships ahead of us!
With only mild interest we made
our way TO the decks. In the dis
lance we could see "A great, bleak
shape, which we knew TO be a dread
nOught and close to her, lowering
like her own child, was a smaller
craft. The dreadnough was, of course,
the Audacious. The smaller one was
the cruiser Liverpool.
"As we approached we remarked
two significant things:
THAT the Liverpool directed her
course towards us and that the Au-
dacious was so low in the water as
tern that the wild sea was washing
her after decks.
"A few minutes later we were near
enough 10 see that the dreadnOught
from her main mast signal arm was
flying the international red and white
flag which is the inter-
national sign of distress.
by this time passengers and crew
alike were all on deck. We had that
instructive feeling that told us we
were about to witness a great event"
Beames Tells Story.
Beames here broke into his ship
mates narrative.
THE Liverpool came directly to-
wards US" he said, signalling us to
slow up. She put herself athwart our
bow and proceeded to steam in the
line of q continuous IS" in front of
us. Her action later became clear.
She feared that other mines were in
our course and her brave crew were
willing to let their own boat TO be
blown up rather than 10 allow ours. |
with hundreds of neutral passengers
to perish.
capt Haddock was not slow TO
l head his voice ring out
Erasp the situation. As soon as we
were we'll in sight Of the distressed
from the bridge:
Sailors, man the boats
There followed q sight which ]
shall never forget. Every man in
The Olympics crew at once pressed |
to the boat deck. They were followed
by every steward 1t was not a cues |
ton of who should be ordered TO set
to sea on the heavy waves; II was
question Of who should be allowed 10
risk his life for King Georges sailors |
1--WE at first tried 10 lower our st7r
board boats but the sea was running
too heavily on this side. So Cap. |
HaddoCk moved the Olympic TO
position two ships lengths
away from the sinking Audacious and |
our II port boats were lowered
Laying as we did. we broke the |
wind which rushed against the man. !
f-war and by forming a hollow
square, open at both ends. were able /
10 get a more quiet sea for the frail |
life boats
Boat Is Overturned.
Just as the first of our own boats /
the water we saw a similar
though smaller craft. push of from I
The Audacious. 1t carried FIVE men. |
but il was too fragile TO live in such I
A sea. 1t was overturned before il 1
mad proceeded so yards.
we held our breaths and watched. {
We saw four heads bobbing in tho wa
ter like as many corks on an anglers 4
inc. With superb strength these men /
to climb upon the keel OF I
heir boat. which had turned corr
pletely over The petty officer who
vas IL command of the small boat di' I
not reappear He was the only one I