There are 1106 survivors, of whom 28 are injured, and it is estimated that 50 lives were lost. The Daily Chronicle's Athens correspondent states that the Britannic was sunk by a submarine off the island of Zea.
The survivors and nurses were landed at Port Phaleron, and they witnessed the departure of two of the four expelled Ministers going to the Piraeus to embark.
The Daily Chronicle's Athens correspondent writes : Details of the outrage will prove that the Britannic was the victim of another example of Germany's unmitigated barbarism.
Two Hun submarines lay in wait in the narrow sea for the express purpose of sending her to the bottom, the submarines attacking on both sides simultaneously.
Each launched a torpedo; one missed, but the other struck fatally. It was a deliberate crime, all the worse because the submarine commanders must have noticed that the Britannic was going north, that fact implying that she was carrying only the usual crew and complement of nurses, doctors, and medical service men.
But that did not count with the cowardly foe. The Britannic was going to Mudros to take aboard sick and wounded. She was fitted to carry 3000 soldiers.
•The Bible class which Mr Duncan Wright, of the City Mission, has been conducting at the Arthur Street School for the past 21 years brought its year's work to a close in the school hall yesterday afternoon.
During the past year the class has had an average attendance of 223, which makes it the largest of all the classes conducted by Mr Wright in the city schools.
He reported that this year's class was the best he had yet had in numbers, attention, and good order. Seventy-eight of the boys and girls had earned special recognition for excellent attendance.
He expressed his gratitude to the head master and staff and the older boys and girls for their active co-operation. The large gathering of boys and girls present yesterday afternoon stood silently in token of their sympathy with Mr Wright in the recent bereavement he has suffered.
The meeting was briefly addressed by Messrs W. R. Brugh, E. Cameron, M. Cohen, and W. T. Talboys, each of whom congratulated Mr Wright on attaining his majority in his work at Arthur Street.
•Speaking to a Wellington Post reporter regarding the Aurora Expedition, the Hon. Dr R. McNab, Minister of Marine, stated that Sir Ernest Shackleton was expected to arrive in Wellington on the 29th inst., and he (the Minister) had altered his arrangements in order to be in Wellington when the explorer arrived.
Dr McNab stated that the Aurora would leave Port Chalmers some time after December 15. If she left before that date the ice would not be open in the Ross Sea.
The expedition had to be timed to get to its destination as soon as possible, not only on account of the fact that the men had been down in the Antarctic a long time but it might be found that they were at the depots, expecting Shackleton to come overland.
Possibly it would be necessary to send sledge parties south. One contingency to be considered was whether a search party would have to be landed, the Aurora returning to New Zealand and going back again to the Antarctic next summer.
It was sincerely hoped that this would not prove to be the case, but the possibility had to be taken into consideration in provisioning the Aurora.
- ODT, 24.11.1916.
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