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Maritime Newspaper Articles - 1940

Old Newspaper

from ENG-LIVERPOOL rootsweb list

SS CITY of BENARES

LIVERPOOL DAILY POST
Mon Sept 23rd 1940
294 DROWNED in Nazi outrage
11 Liverpool victims
Children show their courage as liner sinks.
294 people including 83 children evacuees lost when liner taking them to new homes in Canada was torpedoed in mid-Atlantic by a U-Boat late on tuesday night.
Among the victims 11 from Liverpool, Col Baldwin WEBB. M.P, for the Wrekin Division of Shropshire is one of those missing.
A storm added to the tragedy, occupants of boats and rafts suffered from exposure. The children trustingly obeyed orders given as the ship was sinking beneath them.
Tributes have been paid to the courage of the passengers
A few survivors have been landed at a Northern port.

    Rex Ernest THORNE, age 13, 10 Derwent Gardens, Wembley [sister dead].
    Jack Sidney KEELEY, age 8, 138 Cowley Rd, Brixton [sister dead]
    John BAKER, age 7, 90 Townsend Rd, Southall [brother dead]
    Louis Bernard WALDER, age 10 and sister Bessie Annie WALDER age 15, 33 Rhyl St, Kentish Town
    Eleoner WRIGHT, age 13, 1 Livingstone Rd, Sunderland
    Elizabeth May CUMMINGS, age 14, 55 Kingsfield Rd, Liverpool 2 Escorts
    Miss Marjorie Elizabeth DAY, age 53, Head Mistress, Airlie House, Wycombe Abbey School, High Wycombe [head escort]
    Mrs Lilian Rose TOWNS, age 30, infant teacher, 7A Cavendish Parade, Clapham, London. reserve escort took the post at the last moment.
    There were 406 on the ship, 215 crew, 191 passengers including evacuees
    Five perished from the same family the GRIMMONDS
    James GRIMMOND, 42, Machine gunner of the great war, with 5 of his children lost and his house burnt to the ground is joining up again to get his revenge, his wife remains stolid saying Hitler cannot break their spirit. When their house was bombed the family with 10 children where saved five of the children were sent to a rest centre and later to the ship to go to safety, Augusta 13, Violet 11, Constance 9, Edward 8 and Leonard 5.
    Two other children had been passengers on the ship which had been torpedoed in August. Michael BROOKER and Patricia ALLEN
    Two girls swam to safety and clung to an overturned boat for hours Elizabeth CUMMINGS from Liverpool and Bessie WALKER of London until the fluttering of their hankerchiefs attracted the attention of the rescuing warship. A seaman also clinging to the boat was on the point of collapse but was encouraged by the girls saying a ship was on its way.
From The Malden [MA] Evening News, 6 July 1948 -
Entire Crew Saved In Sea Explosion
SEASIDE, N. J., July 6--The Coast Guard reports
the entire crew of the 100-foot vessel Reliable, which
exploded two miles off the Jersey coast, has been rescued.
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Dennis Ahern | Middlesex County Massachusetts Newspaper Abstracts
Acton, Massachusetts | http://www.rootsweb.com/~mamidnws/index.html
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