The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-05-15
Survivors Picked Up by Patrol
Boat Within As Minutes.
Victims Reach N. Y; Great
Britain Suppresses News.
BALTIC HAS NARROW ESCAPE
Torpedo Misses Gigantic Liner
Only Bare 10 Feet.
Ships Pick Up 15S Survivors of
French Ship Medjerda.

New York, May 15.-Ninety lives
We're lost on April 81 on the torpedo
ing of .he 1852 ton British liner
Abosso off Fastnet. according to
stories of passengers here today from
Europe.
The ship was torpedoed without
warning Forty-six passengers were
lost and forty-four of the crew.
The Abosso was unable to stop her
engines after the German torpedo
struck and the hull smashed into three
of the lifeboats crushing those abroad
or drowning them. She was bound
from Nigeria to Liverpool
According to the version brought
here, the Abosso was steaming 800
miles south of Fastnet on the night
of April "a. About o'clock look
out saw lights ahead Almost imnle-
diately afterward the torpedo eXplod-
ed against the ships side. No subma-
rine was sighted then or later.
Vessel Was Armed.
The Abosso was armed and fitted
with wireless An admiralty patrol,
summoned by wireless, picked up the
survivors within forty-five minutes
and landed them in Liverpool.
Thomas w. Coopers of Watonga,
Okla, passenger. and Louis NJ.
Gobous Of New York, a member of
the crew, were both among those
saved.
More than week ago the London
Chronicle printed a story demanding
to know why the British admiralty
concealed the torpedoing of a Ger
tain big ship" with a loss of more
than 10 lives" The Chronicle prob
ably referred to the Abosso-
The Apcsso is listed in Lloyds as
steel screw liner of 1852 tons regis
tered at London and owned by the
African Steamship company.
Big Baltic Escapes.
New York, May ia torpedo fir
ed by a German submarine at the
White Star liner Baltic April 10, miss
ed the great liner by bare ten feet,
according to information obtained to-
day from travellers in New York
This was the second attack made on
the Baltic in two days Both were
frutless. The first attack was made
on April is and the wake of the APP
preaching torpedo was seen in time to
switch the Baltic suddenly from her
course. Thursdays attack was much
closer the torpedo missing by a scant
ter feet. On neither occasion did the
Baltic sight the U-boat which fired the
torpedo.
When the Baltic did arrive safely at
a British port. she brought six mem
bers of the crew of a Danish lumber
sailing ship, - days out of Savannah
when rescued.
Tell of Other Sinkings.
Travellers here wei also authority
for news of the sinking of the British
steamer Oswald. from Pensacola to
Liverpool at 8 a. m. April 23. There
was no warning of the submarines ap-
proach. The senior wireless officer
was drowned, but the others of the
sixty aboard were saved. including
Arthur Ferguson of Berwick, Maine.
an American surgeon.
Another U-boat victim of which
word was received here today was the
British sailing ship Arethusa, bound
from Gulfport Miss, to Greenoch. She
was attacked April % without warn
ing. Steamer Elmer Malcolm of
Philadelphia, an American, was at her
helm. The vessel did not sink so the
Germans set her on fire.
Baltic, Ship of 23,S76 Tons.
The Baltic is one of the largest pas
senger steamers now in commission
23,S76 tons.
The British steamer Oswald is list
ed in Lloyds as a steel screw vessel.
of 5.1S5 tons, property of the Booth
Steamship company and registered at
Liverpool.
Rescue 1873 at Sea.
Paris, May 15.-One hundred and
fifty-eight survivors of the torpedoed
French passenger steamer Medjerka,
sunk while on her way from Algeria to
Marseilles. have been picked up by a
passing ship, it was learned today.