London, Jan. 13.
The Admiralty now state that twenty-three persons are missing as the result of the sinking in a gale last evening of His Majesty's tug] Ist. Genny, belonging to the target service attached to. the Atlantic Fleet. She was commanded. by Lieutenant Paul and was on her way to Gibraltar from Portland for the' spring exercises.
"The St, Genny was a tug of about }425 tons. She was accompanied by the tug St, Cyrus and the sloop /Snapdragon. They have to in last jevening's gale north-west of Ush-fant, and suddenly the St, Genny foundered.
One petty officer and four seamen were picked up by the Snapdragon.
The news of the disaster was wire-essed to Portsmouth, from where the cruiser Frobisher was rushed to the spot to stand by and assist the Snapdragon and St, Cyrus.
Meanwhile the annual move of! ithe Atlantic Fleet irom Portland to Gibraltar for the spring exercises, scheduled for to-day, has been postponed: for twenty-four hours owing to the gale, Three officers and 20 mon of the Royal Navy lest their lives in the great gale yesterday evening when the naval tug St, Genny sank about 30 miles N. W. of Ushant in the Bay of Biscay. The drowned Joficers were Lieut. Chacies Frederick Paul, Commissioned Gunner Philip Lean and Boatswain Charles Burren.
Several other ships lost their Pinnaces ard other boats in the gas. Thirteen deaths were caused on land by the gale.
Two more men must be added to the gale's death roll. They left Herne Bay in a motor launch and Jan, 14.
The five survivers. of the ill-fated St. Genny were brought to to Plymouth to-day in the St. Cyrus and immediately taken to hospital. All of them were in a very exhausted condition as the resuit fof their struggle for life in the tremendous waves that swept them when the St, Genny went down.
'An officer of the St, Cyrus, in the course of a graphic story lof the foundering of the St. Genny, related that a huge wave sept the St, Cyrus, as a consequence of which' their look-out man missed the St.
Genny. Then they turned on search-fights to the spot where she W last seen and "saw several men swimming. The St. Cyras approach-fed as near as possible, but the terrible seas running made it_impossible to Taunch a lifeboat. }fow-ever, five men were rescued by means of lifebets.
The officer aald that the St. Genny sank like a stone.
"Te is thought that one of her bow-plates was smashed in.
'AIl those. who were saved were swept off the St. Genny's deck. There was no hope for the rest of the crew, who were below when she foundered—Reuter,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.