The Hawaiian gazette., 1917-10-23
BRUTAL HUNS
OPEN fire JON.
men IN BOATS.
LEAVING SHIPS
Signals Of Surrender Are Ignored
and Desperate Sailors Row
Nainly Back To Sinking Yes
sells In Effort To Escape Death
ONLY THlRTY-SEvEN
LIVE FROM NINE CRAFT
Neutral Shipping Is Treated With
No More Mercy Than Enemy
and Norwegian Shipping Is
Severe Sufferer From Friends

and Norwegian Shipping I:
~ Severe Sufferer From Friend,
I ONDON, October Fl - Gas
~ sociated Press Following
the sinking Of two British des
troyers, the Strongbow and tht
Mary Rose, which opposed theii
light guns to those OF two Ger.
man cruisers in a North Sea fight
on Wednesday last, the German
warships destroyed feet Of neu.
trail merchant vessels with saw
agery which has now become al.
most the accepted methods of the
modern pirates. Before they sank,
the British gunners managed to
place numerous hits against their
) big antagonists, and the losses
they had received from their
rnny antagonists appear to have
riven the German commander
of the two cruiser hotilla into a
fury. III ,a,
The guns offthc two cruisers
were turned against the unarmed
crafts and shells were poured in
toothe defenseless vessels. When
lifeboats were lowered and the
neutral sailors attempted to leave
their ships, these were made the
targets of the German shells. In
desperation, the sailors in some
instances rowed back to their
ships and boarded them, making
signals Of surrender and begging
the cruiser gunners to cease fir
ing, but no attention whatever
was paid to these appeals.
- MASSACRE GENERAL 7
Nine neutral ships in all were
sunk, many of the members OF
each crew being killed by she'll
fire or drowned, the Germans
making no effort whatever to
lower any of their small boats to
pick up any of the men strug-
Cling in the icy waters. Each of
the three Scandinavian nations
was represented in the destruc-
ton and murder, there being five
Norwegian, three Swedish and
one Danish vessel in the feet,
which was proceeding towards
Norway and were near the Nor
wegian coast. The British des-
troyers were guiding the neu-
trails through the mine fields. ~
The report of the murderous
brutality of the German sailors
comes from Christiania, with cor
roboration from Bergen. So.
SURVIVORS REACH LAND
OF all the men who left port
aboard the nine neutral steamers
only thirty-seven survive the
massacre. These were taken into
Christiania aboard a Norwegian
destroyer, which had picked the
men up on Saturday morning. At
Bergen yesterday there arrived
ten members of the crew of the
destroyer Mary Rose, probably
the only British survivors of the
battle. ..-. 81 "..
The Scandinavian survivors tell of
suffering for two days after they had
escaped from the hail Of shells which
had wiped their shipmates out. In
their small boats they had suffered from
""N "o'p, having Ueeh permitted
no time to secure anything but the
clothes they wore. Their lifeboats con.
trined neither food nor water, while the
men had, in many instances been sub.
merged as their boats were shot to
pieces under them and they had to
swim to other lifeboats The cold, with
their soaked clothing, made their SUI.
fering intense. .'S. w.
British Would Not Run
The captain of one of the Norwegian
steamers, the sole survivor of all his
ships company, says that the German
cruisers came suddenly out Of fog bank
and wore upon the merchant fleet and
it's two little defenders without a min.
utels warning. The battle between