Boats were launched, but at least one of these upset,
and several persons were drowned alongside the vessel. The number of persons injured by the explosion was also unusually great. It is still not known exactly how many lives were lost, as the survivors dis- persed and a precise record could not be kept, but the total is believed to be over fifty. Some of the Americans on board were gravely injured, and one or two are missing. The ' Sussex ' was towed into Boulogne with many passengers still on board. Others had been taken off and brought back to England by patrol-boats. Mr. Marshall describes how immediately after the cx-plosion there was a rush for one of the boats, babies were thrown into it, and though it pushed off from the vessel's side in safety it afterwards began to roll and capsized. Only a few of the people struggling in the water could be rescued. Mr. Marshall also saw people clinging to gratings which turned over and provided no safety. The only grating which was not cap, sizing, so far as he could see, was one on which a young woman lay on her back. A figure which remained specially in his memory was that of a. dead man who swung head down from the wreckage on the front of the vessel. Mr. Marshall cabled to President Wilson a strong protest against the toleration of such crimes.
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