Four destroyers of the Grand Fleet were always ready at short notice Vice Admiral also ordered the yacht Zazu and the trawler City: of Selb then at the north of the Or to proceed southwards tu the of the accident. Five other destroyers from the Grand Fleet got up steam and left to search for The scene of the neatly 15 miles by sca from Etromness. The rescue vessels hud to contend with a .W. wird of nearly fall scale force, a sea estimated as a 20-foot and a strong incoming tide. The destroyers, straining themselves to the atmo: only maintain a speed varying from 15 (0 12 knots after they reached the open sca Hthrough Moy Sound. The ships spent the whole night searching. in every direction, and taking bodies from the water. In doing so they made considerable use of their searchlights, not only over the sea but on to the coast, in the attempt to discover boats or rafts and the hope of assisting rezeue parti shore.
The facts in connexion with the reports Birsay have been il, not in order to impate blame to' any party, but in order that no portion of the time that elapsed between the sinking of the Hampshire and the arrival of the rescue vessels on the scone may been left unaceou As no boats got away from the ship, the possibility of saving lives on whether it was practicable for survivors to keep themselves afloat with the aid of wreckage until help. arrived or they were carried to the shore, Nothing could be clearer, however, from the statements of tha survivors saved from the floats than that, from the first, there was no possible chance of life being saved by either of these means and that the bitter coldness of the sea and the violence of the waves must have. brought death with merciful quickness, No good purpose would be served by publishing all the harrowing details in the possession of the Admiralty, but the following tracts show what the conditions The Roughness of the Sea so rough that the sea on us and many men—ice, in the float—were killed by the buffeting they received. Many others died from the fearful cold, T was quite benumbed. An most overpowering desire to sleep came upon us, and to get over this we thumped each other on the back, for no man who went to sleep ever woke again. When men died it was just as though they I got them singing," but they kept dropping. off the raft, They were clustered round you, dying as you looked at them. There" were people of fine Physique, T was quite surprised at, It was very cold.
It was impossible to' swim in that tea...
Lifebelts did not seem to be any good in that sea, It was too rough.
Tt may' be added that a certain number of men Left the floats while they were drifting into shore and attempted to swim—some of them. because they had Hifebelts, in order to leave more room on the floats for those who had none, and others {in the hope of reaching the shore sooner, "Not one swimmer survived, On members thinking while he was on the flout that if any rescue ship—destroyer or otherwise alongside he was quite certain that they would have nothing in that aca, The foregoing account shows that it fs quite untrue to say that adequate rescue operations we attempted at sca until the following day. Apart from this unfounded allegation, there has been criticism from some quarters because the Stromness 40-feet auxiliary motor-Tifebout was not called out. (Another version that the lifeboat w: not allowed by the Commander, Western Patrol, to put out, can be definitely contradicted on contemporary evidence).
The report sets out in full detail the preparations that were made shore for, the reception of any men who might have been saved, Parties were rushed in cars with ropes, noces= blankets, and other saries to parts of the coast, including Marwick Head,—Tervitovials and inhabitants of the district also assembled ready. to render any assistance that might be necessary, and a search of the const survivor was found near the the cliff at Nebbi Geo and at the bottom, the float on which they had come ashore being pounded in the surf. There were six survivors from this float.
Another flout was found 300 yards from the northern entrance of Skaill Bay. Of the 42 occupants four died.
The Rescue Work The report continues:
The survivors received the greatest kindness at the farms. Tt was from the survivors themselves that those belonging to the rescue parties firet heard of the presence of Lord Kitchener on board the lost ship, and the story was regarded them for some time as an the following, ge numbers of bodies were being collected with adequate facilities, ordinary police measures hud to be taken to prevent the tendency of members of the public to crowd upon and impede the operations. This appears to be the only foundation for tie allegation that local inhabitants wore prevented from engaging in The bodies wore identified and arrangements made for their burial, The bodies of two only of Lord
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.