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THE LOSS OF THE "ALNWICK CASTLE"
From Ships
of South Africa by Marischall Murray.
A day out
from England (she had sailed from Plymouth on March 17th 1917
Captain Benjamin Chave in command) the Alnwick Castle picked
up 25 survivors from the Trevose, which had just been sunk by
a submarine. Before daylight next morning, at 6.10 a.m.,
the Alnwick Castle herself was torpedoed without warning and within
half an hour she had gone to the bottom of the sea.
Everyone on
board was safely got off in the lifeboats, six in number, which were
now cast adrift more than 300 miles from the nearest land.
Within a short time the boats were seperated, and were lost to sight
one from another.
In the Chief
Officer's boat there were 31 souls, including the one lady passenger
of the Alnwick Castle, her baby, and the ship's stewardess.
For over a week these people were tossed about in the open sea.
Their experiences were horrible. The Atlantic was at its
stormiest and the weather was bitter; water gave out; men went
raving mad; one man jumped overboard; every day someone died of
exposure. On Monday, March 26th, the coast of Spain was
sighted. By this time ten of those in the boat had
perished as a result of their privations and the remainder were so
weak that thry were unable to pull towards the shore. It
was only the following day that their misery was ended, for Spanish
fishermen noticing their signals, put out to sea and brought them to
the small fishing village of Carino, near Cape Ortegal.
There the villagers headed by the priest met them and took them to
various cottages. in the neighbourhood where they were kindly looked
after by the fisherfolk. Later they were taken to
hospital at Ferrol, from where they ultimately returned to England.
Those in the
Captain's boat, too, suffered terribly. there were
similar tales of death from privation, thirst, frostbite, and
exposure. On the fifth day after the disaster, early on
Friday afternoon, March 23rd, the survivors in this boat were picked
up by a French steamer, the Fabre Liner Venezia. They
were so weak that they could not climb up the side of the rescuing
vessel and had to be hoisted up in slings. In the
lifeboat four bodies were left behind. It was impossible
for the Venezia to wait for those also to be taken on board and
given burial, for delay was dangerous in those waters where, any
moment, another submarine might appear.
Weeks later
a muster was taken of the survivors of the Alnwick Castle, and it
was found that 40 of those originally on board had perished.
Of the lifeboats two were never seen or heard of again.
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