New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-09-24

follows: At Harwich, sos; on British
ships, 220, at Ymuiden, Holland, 30S, at
Lowestoft. 81.
1t is possible that other Lowestoft
fishing trawlers, besides the one SHGt
has already reached here with sur
viyors, have made further rescues. The
trawler which has arrived here saw
the three cruisers sink and rescued 800
men, who, with the exception Of 80,
were transferred to warships. The
thirty-four were landed here.
The captain Of the trawler says that
the first cruiser attacked sank in three
minutes, the second in eight minutes
and the third as quickly as the first.
London, Sept. 23.-The swift and ST.
lent destruction Of three cruisers
which cost nearly $12,O00,000, has
brought home to the foremost naval
people the risks and possibilities of
modern naval warfare, as nothing else
in this war has done.
The unseen enemy crept upon the
Aboukir, then the Hogue, and then the
Cressy, and one after another the
cruisers keeled over and settled be-
meath the waves, all in only twenty
minutes.
Survivors Stories Vary.
The survivors who have reached
Dutch and British ports variously de-
clare there were three and five German
submarines in the attacking force.
Some day that the Cressy or the Lowe
stoft accounted for two of them. The
Admiralty, however, does not yet con-
firm the statement that any of the
German craft was destroyed, and it is
possible that none was even seen.
The experts say that submarine
might easily slip from Emden, on the
upper mouth Of the Channel, and at
tack any British ship it happened to
meet and return home.
Neither the navy nor the country,
az their feeling is voiced in the news
papers, is dismsyed at the price, and
the call on the Admiralty is for more
aggressive action, although the alter
native is presented of sealing the Ger
mans ND in their harbors with mines
if their strategy of keeping their big
ships at home and making raids with
submarines proves consistently eff
fective.
Captain Berkhout, of the steamer
Titan. who saved ia of the British
sailors, witnessed the fight between the
cruisers and the submarines. Accord
ing to the Rotterdam correspondent OF
"The Daily Telegraph" this is the
story he tells Of it:
"'fhe fight took place about 7 o'clock
in the morning. at which time ] saw
German submarine tearing away at
great speed.
See Cruisers on Horizon.
Ear away on the horizon | saw
three cruisers, the Aboukir, the Cressy
and the Hogue, and after a while ! no
ticed that one of them had gone. | did
not pay particular attention at the
time, but when | next turned to look
for them | noticed another had disap-
peared. There was some smoke, and /
heard slight explosion.
AT once I dashed in their direction,
and on arriving in the vicinity | low
cred away two boats to rescue a large
number of men whom l saw swimming
about in the water. Altogether ]
picked up Ill men and officers. All
were naked, for they had thrown off
their clothes in the water. One of the
officers was Commander w. S. Sells, Of
Portsmouth. His wrist watch had
stopped at 1905, and it was at 10
o'clock that picked him up.
"As soon as the commander was
brought on board he dropped eX-
hausted. We gave him some wine and
in about ten minutes he came around.
Then he smiled and said it was long
swim.
"While ! was on my way the remain
ing cruiser rolled over and sank. When
arrived I was pleased to find that two
L6westoft cutters had reached the spot
before me. They were pulling naked
men out Of the water. One boat was
absolutely full of men and other men
were struggling all around, but they
were nearly exhausted and almost numb
from cold. Many were clinging to
wreckage, one group clustering around
d floating table.
Commander Sells told me of the
! trying experience of brave little mid
shipman. II appears that the midship-
man was on board the first vessel
which was struck, and as she was set.
! thing down he jumped overheard and
swan clear of the tremendous vortex
which the disappearance of the ship
had created. He was picked up by
another of the cruisers, but soon she
| also was struck by the submarine
/ torpedo and in her turn began to settle
down. he ndd again 10 jump lnlo the
water to save himself, but he was un-
injured by the explosion, and cleared
the downward suction. A third cruiser
! rescued him, but he had not been long
on board her before she also received
her death wound. Again he got clear
and chung to a piece of wreckage, from
which he was rescued.
"This midshipman was pleased when
we of the Titan rescued him and we
asked if he would come with US. He
preferred to 60 back to England, how.
ever. and accordingly, we put him on
BOARD a destroyer and hope he is safe
at home now. The destroyer also took
most of the men ! picked up.
"The Flora picked up over two hun
dred and the Lowestoft's boats rescued
others before ! came up. One destroyer
came up too late to rescue any, but she
took away some of the men to England
Those engaged in the work of rescue
had to rev among floating naked
| bodies"
A member of the crew of the Lowe
stoft, which went to the help of the
three cruisers and took many survlv-
ors to Harwich, spoke with great fer
vor of the gallantry shown by the
crews of the sin,'ing cruis-rs.
talk Of bravery" said he, why thI
| ~ Er,s, III