The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-03-13
The English Admiralty An- nOunces Sinking of the Bayno While Engaged in Patrol Duty
CRUISER BELIEVED
 TO HAVE BEEN SUNK
 BY GERMAN TORPEDO
Seek to Prevent Re- Inducements in East by Taking Sudden Offensive in the West

London, March 13.-12:45 a. m.) The admiralty announces the loss of the auxiliary cruiser Bayano while the vessel was engaged in patrol duty.
 In it's statement of the disaster the admiralty says:
 "On March II wreckage of the Bayano and bodies were discovered and circumstances point to her having been sunk by an enemy torpedo.
 Eight officers and IS men were rescued, but it is feared that the re- mainder of the crew were lost.
 ''The captain of the Belfast steamer castlereagh reports passing Thursday morning a quantity of wreekage and bodies floating in life belts. He attempted to search for possible survivors, but was prevented by the appearance of an enemy submarine, which gave chase for 20 min utes"
 The Bayano was n comparatively
 new steamer. She was built at Glasgow in 1913 and was owned by Elder &
 l<yffes before being taken over by the
 British government and fitted out as
 an auxiliary cruiser.
 The Bayano was of $500 tons dis
 placement and 415 feet long.
 The Belfast correspondent of the
 Daily Telegraph says the Bayano was
 torpedoed Thursday morning at
 o'clock off Corsewall Point. wigtown-
 shire, Scotland. and that nearly POO lives were lost The vessel had a crew of about 2ls men on board Tiss cruiser sank a most Immediately. Wigtownshire Is the southwesternmost county in Scotland. It lies on the north channel. which leads into the Irish sea from the Atlantic.
 The IS survivors of the Bayano were rescued by the Belfast steamer Bal- merino. They were afloat on q raft An other steamer picked up one of tho Bayanos lfeboats. which was adrift and also two of her rufts. Tho survivors were landed at Ayr.
 The captain of the Balmerino, in an interview with the Daily Photographs correspondent at Belfast, said that tile collier was on voyage from Belfast to Ayr when at S:30 o'clock Thurs day morning. four miles from Block head, he saw low-lying object in the water. His first impression was that 1t was submarine. but on closer inspec- ton cluster of men were observed making signals with garments att tached to an oar
 When the collier got closer the crew of the Balmerino found two rafts and ships boat upturned with 26 men on them.
 1.-TWO of the men," said the captain. had no other clothing than shirts and others only their sleeping garments. All were more dead than alive from wet, cold and exposure, but cheered us as we neared them. Boats were lowered and the men were transferred, which took a long time owing to the difficulty of moving the wounded and famished members of the group
 Eighteen Removed
 The captain said that two of the rescued men were so far gone that in another half hour he believed they would have perished. Eighteen of the men on tho raft, including two doe tors were removed to the Balmerino. After these were safely got aboard . boat was making second journey to the rafts when the armed merchant man Tara arrived on the scene s-nd took off the remaining eight sur yivors.
 ",The men were given warm cloth ing and restoratives, continued the captain. "They were overjoyed at thelr rescue They said the Bayano sank within a few minutes after being tor pedoed.
 { "There was a terrific explosion and the vessel went down by the bows. The explosion created great amourt of damage and some of the lifeboats
 (Continued on Page Eight.)