ADRIFT ON THE OCEAN (1916)

Description

Date: 8 January 1916

Transcript:

ADRIFT ON THE OCEAN
SWANSEA MAN'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE

Mr. Beynon Burnie, of 45, Walter-road, Swansea, brother of the late Lieut. Burnie, of the 6th Welsh, has just returned to Swansea after an exciting experience during a voyage in the Mediterranean. On October 29th he left Swansea for a trip in the Mediterranean for the benefit ot his health, on the Veria. one of the Cunard Company's cargo boats, under the charge, of Captain Thomson, of Liverpool. On the outward journey calls were made at Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Palermo and Patras (Greece), to discharge cargo, and the ship then made her way light for Alexandria to load a cargo for home.

The voyage was more or les uneventful, Mr. Burnie told a "Leader" reporter in an interview, until December 7th. About two o'clock in the afternoon the Veria picked up 22 survivors of a submarined French steamer, which was on her way from Alexandria to Hull, and two hours later, when about 30 miles north-west of Alexandria, the vessel herself fell a victim to an enemy submarine. She was not torpedoed, but was crippled with gun fire.

[portrait of Beynon Burnie]

Anxious for Food.

"After the crew had taken to the boats." said Mr. Burnie, the submarine rcew [sic] went on board, and took what they wanted. They seemed more anxious for food than any thing else. As we were rowing away in the distance we saw the lights of the pirates on the ship, and later heard a loud explosion. They had evidently blown her up."

"We saved absolutely nothing," he continued, "but the clothes we stood up in. Everything waslost, and the captain and the captain had only just left the bridge when shots from the submarine carried away the bridge and the chart house. None of us was injured by gunfire, but one shot just missed the little ship's boat in which I and ten others had saved ourselves. It was either a good shot for us or a bad shot for the steamer. We thought it was fired at us, but those in the other boats thought it was fired at the ship.

Without Compass or Sail.

The other members of the crew of 38 and the 22 survivors were accommodated in the two lifeboats. "We had neither compass nor sail in our boat," Mr Burnie continued. "The others managed to take a bit of food with them into the boats. It was getting dark, and the only guidance was the lights of Alexandria in the distance. We took eighteen hours to row into Alexandria. Fortunately the sea was calm, and it was a starlight night, otherwise we would never have got there. The two other boats were picked up by passing steamers."


Source:
'Adrift on the Ocean.' The Herald of Wales. 8 Jan. 1916. 5.

• https://newspapers.library.wales/view/4115022/4115027/92/ (link opens in new window)