TRAWLERS TO THE RESCUE 



splendid service and winning the warm praise of 

 Commander Bertram W. L. Nicholson, of the 

 Cressy. A Lowestoft trawler and two Dutch ships, 

 the Flora and Titan, were extraordinarily kind, 

 reported Commander Reginald A. Norton, of the 

 Hogue; but he had to add that a Dutch sailing 

 trawler sailed close by without rendering any assist- 

 ance, though they signalled to her from the Hogue 

 to close, after the}' were struck. Not a few of the 

 survivors were satisfied that this supposed Dutch 

 fishing vessel was not Dutch at all, but a German 

 vessel sailing under false colours, and for the credit 

 of Holland and her fishermen it was hoped that this 

 suspicion was correct. 



The shock of the loss of the three cruisers had 

 scarcely passed when the Admiralty announced the 

 loss of H.M.S. Hawke. This was in October, 1914. 

 H.M.S. Theseus and the Hawke were attacked by 

 submarines " in the northern waters of the North 

 Sea." The Theseus was missed, but the Hawke 

 was sunk, with the loss of nearly 500 lives. The 

 announcement added that three officers and 49 men 

 of the Ilawke's crew had been landed at Aberdeen 

 by a trawler. This vessel was the Ben Rinnes, 

 Skipper John Cormack, who, on landing the sur- 

 vivors at Aberdeen Fish Market, stated that he had 

 taken them off a Norwegian steamer on the previous 

 night. 



Though this was not a direct rescue by a steam 

 trawler, it was an instance of the ubiquity of these 

 vessels and the great help they gave in relieving 



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