Tuesday's papers contain a full account of the torpedoing of
the hospital ship ' Dover Castle ' by a German submarine in the Mediterranean on May 26th, when on her homeward voyage from Salonika. Fortunately most of the wounded were "walking " and not " cot cases," but even so the task of rescue was only rendered possible by the courage of the men and the heroic efforts of the crew and the medical staff. When all were in the boats, the captain, who was the last to leave the ship, seeing that she might still keep afloat, called for volunteers to return to her until the arrival of the tugs. Immediately officers, engineers, and sailors offered to go back with him, and a number were with him in the ship when she was struck by a second torpedo and sunk in a few minutes. The captain and those with him were saved, but six of the stokehold crew were missing when the roll-call was made on shore. Not one of the wounded was lost, and, as one of the sailors finely put it, " their gratitude was dearer than all the distinguished Orders in the world."
Previous page
