Barcelona, Mar. 7.
Spanish Nationalists suffered a serious blow yesterday when the Baleares, one of the few cruisers, at first believed to be the 10,000-ton Canarias, was sunk after a surprise attack by Republican warships off the East coast of Spain, 70 miles off Cape Palos.
The cruiser was hit by a torpedo fired by a Republican destroyer, believed to be the Lepanto, and soon was burning from stem to stern. Subsequently, Republican aircraft went out to the scene of the naval battle and bombed the burning ship. It appears, however, that the damage which caused the cruiser to sink was done by the torpedo.
Two British warships, the flotilla leader Kempenfelt (1,390 tons) and the destroyer Boreas (1360 tons), rescued many survivors from the sinking vessel.
A member of the crew of HMS. Boreas was fatally wounded by the splinter of a bomb dropped by Republican aircraft attacking other Nationalist ships, to which the survors of the sinking ship were being transferred, while three other members were slightly injured.
The bomb exploded in the water. The British ships were not hit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.