THE MOTOR BOAT PATROL.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16264, 15 July 1918, Page 8

THE MOTOR BOAT PATROL.

CHMSTCHORCH YACHTSMAN'S

EXPERIENCES

FROM TRAINING COURSE TO THE

REAL THING

In " letters written by Lieutenant Lewis Hancock, of Christchurch, of the Royal Navy Auxiliary Patrol Motorboat service, whose graphic account of the Zeebrugge raid recently appeared in "The Press," interesting details have been obtained of the work of this important branch of the British Navy. In one letter written after his arrival in the British Isles, Lieutenant Hancock describes the training that he and otner .New 2.ealanders unuerwent. FIRST DAIS JUS LONDON. Lieutenant Hancock and the other iNevv Zieuianciers wuo nad enlisted and passed tue preliminary examination, leit Wellington on December th.ii, iyj-ti, 00 R.iN. V .it. orticers being on board, 30 having gone Dy anotner boat. On December iiord they left Sydney, and arrived at Plymoutn on March 3rd, _ 1917. "We were met by a naval oEpcer, writes Lieutenant Hancock, "and taken to the barracks for dinner, and then sent on to London by the express, which was 'some' speed to us. I think we averaged 58 miles per hour, which puts the Christchurch-Lyttelton service in the shade somewhat. We j arrived in London about 9 p.m., caught a tube to Charing Cross station to connect with a train to _ Greenwich. London!!! The city which, a few years ago, seemed so far beyond us! We were excited, of course, but had no time to see if the streets were paved with gold or not. By the way, I think the London folk think the colonial streets are not paved with, but made of gold judging by the charges made for meals and sundries. Greenwich we made at midnight, had supper, and turnod in to sleep the sleep of the weary. This part of London is very old . and historical, and at one time, I believe, the kings had their palaces here. It was at Greenwich that Raleigh placed his cloak over the mud and saved Queen Elizabeth's shoes. Next day we were aroused by a call which we will remember for some time. At half-past seven every mornings, a petty officer goes around each corridor, opens the door of each room, and calls: 'Half-past seven, gentlemen!' We tumbled out, had a bath, breakfast was over by 8.45, and classes began at 9.

EMBARRASSING INCIDENTS.

"The morning after we arrived we were given leave to visit London and order our uniforms. Hero we found how mistaken London tradesmen are over colonials. One' firm had agents posted at the stations to meet us on our arrival to get our orders, and I think that firm got the lion's share. Howover, the prices at all places were extra high, we thought; but we were so anxious to get our uniforms that we were 'bled' and didn't- cry. Before going further I must tell of the pride, and, of course, the falls we had on donning the King's navy blue. We were very proud of ourselves, you may be sure. Perhaps we would be on a railway platform, and a dear old lady (it was not always ladies either) would come up and say: 'Porter, when does the next train leave?' Or, in a crowd, squeezing into tube lift, we would hear in our ear: 'Whore do I change for 'Amstead, mister?' Perhaps walking down the Strand we would give a smart salute to a "brass hat," to find, later, that its wearer was a doorkeeper at a picture •house. I don't think anyoho of us escaped one or other, -and we were considered lucky if wo only got mistaken once a day. One officer saluted, in his best manner, an official ho used to meet regularly eveTy morning. When lie discovered, about a week later, that the "brass hat" was only tho pier master of a small seaside town, his language would have made a bullock driver shed tears of envy!

TRAINING AT GREENWICH. "The instructor ot the classes at Greenwich was Captain Aiontenaro, it.JN., and he was tue friend of all of us from tho first. Jus styie of lecturing was novel to me, as he used to tell funny stories half the time, but in each story was a point which needed our attention, and, of course, it mado learning almost easy. VVe spent a -month under him; then came the examination, and much to tho captaini's joy, we passed with credit, .no told us that he had had 900 other R-.N.V.R. officers through his hands from England and Canada, but wo had gained more firstclass passes than any other class. On April Ist we were ordered to report on board H.M.S. Hermiono at Southampton, to continue our studies. Having learned (or supposed to have learned) the theory of navigation at the Naval College, we were now to have the actual experience: added to this wo were to become expert signallers and gunners, have explosives, mines and torpedoes explained to us, until at last we considered how on earth we could keep the various subjects from becoming mixed in our heads. We had to go through a course of engineering- so as to be able to go below and run an engine should pne, or both, engineers get put out of action at any time. Having satisfied our teachers that wo knew a little more than when we arrived, we sat for our various examinations and, on passing, we were granted a few days' leave in order, I suppose, to recover a little energy after our hard work.

AT A NAVAL BASE. "We were then drafted to various parts of the British Isles, as vacancies occurred at different naval bases. In my own case I was sent to a certain northern baso. Did I hurry? Well, in thoso days I imagined that my absence was holding up tho wliolo British fleet, and that tho base was in terror of submarines, until I arrived. Imagine my disappointment when I found, upon arrival, that nobody knew anything about me, and only found out tho duties allotted to mo on looking up tho, papers showing my appointment. ... I found I was appointed as a spare officer, and my duties were to relieve any officer going on leave. .' . .At this baso I spent seven happy months, being appointed permanently to a ship soon after my arrival. The work dono was varied, but consisted usually of minesweeping, patrolling, directing steamers in case of change in swept channels, escort wojji and hydro-phoning, i.e., an unafcr-water 'telephone, by which a listener can telL if anything is moving under the water though not in sight, such as a submarine. A skilled listener soon picks up the difference in tho beat of different boats, and only begins to get exeited when a 'whirring buzz' is picked up on the 'phone. Minesweeping makes one a bit nervous for the start, but, 'ike other things, it soon passes. The consolation is that should one hit a mine, he will take no further part in sweeping, as a mine will blow a fair-sized ship out of the water and leave little of it. DETECTING SUBMARINES. "Tho exciting job was, if a, submarine was reported near so and so, steering so and so: off we would go at top speed, hoping to be the first to see it and, of course, drop, a depth charge on top of it. Our boat had good engineers and could always be relied on, and a certainty to be in at any kill . . . From the northern base I was transferred to another base whare continual reminders are given of the fact that a war is on. . . . The only thing which seems to worrv us during an air raid is the utter helplessness felt while it is on. Bom>>? and shramifJ. fall frmu -i**. and va

on earth, cannot stop them. The wise visit a dng-oufc, without too muon delay, during these visits; while cae newcomer stands on deck and watches the' shells bursting and searchlights sweeping the sky. while louder nd nearer is the muffled roar of an exploring bomb. Generally the newcomer holds out three raids, and then one falls a little too close to please him, and the old feeling 'better a live rabbit than a dead lion' comes to him, and the next raid sees him underground. Added to this we had _ had destroyer raids and, more exciting still, the big 17in shells dropping around our small craft while on duty with our big moiiitors. THE NAVY'S BIG JOB. "Tho work of our own Fleet I would like to write of, but the Silent Navy is more than a name, and deeds have been done which will not be published until tho day of peace, at the earliest. ... I think I can 6ay, however, that if the New Zealand people only knew the numbers and sorts of boats in oil? British Navy to-day they would be astounded. The different sizes, speeds, and sorts of vessels employed in combating with the submarine menace in itself, is wonderful, and I would likf> very much to describe some of the now creations, but, for obvious reasons, I cannot. I might talk of 'hush' boats. 'P' boats, 'Q' boats, and 'C.M.B.'s,' but what does a name convey? The names of the class, it is obvious to all, indicates that some mystery surrounds the vessels; so we must leave :t at that. In spite of all these new hunting ships, the 'U' boat has the odds in her favour, as one can quite realise if one placed a peg in the centre of a 500-acre paddock and then camp next dav looking for it! Fount! on the surface, however, is guito a different f-tory. I hope readers of this vill continue their trust in the good old British Navy, of which we are all always so proud, and remember that cs well as H.M.S. New Zealand, our iittie country is well represented at many naval bases around the British Isles by New Zealand amateur yachtsmen who are doing all they can to he'p keeo tho old tiag flying." STORM EXPERIENCES. In a later letter Lieutenant Hancock describes his experiences in a heavy gale during which the vessel he was on was posted as lost. He writes: "Here we are once more, and, in fact, we are lucky to get ashore again, as we have just been through a real storm, and it was a terrible one. We were out on patrol and the weather got bad, and we put into Lady Bay Lock Repair, but after a few hours it got worse, so we went down to tho end of the lock (stranrear) and tied up alongside a destroyer at the wharf. So far so good. Another M.L. (motor launch) from Larno tied up to her also —ahead of us—and we thought all was Al. The two officers off the Lari'o M.L. came aboard us after supper tor a smoke and a yarn, and at midnight wo thought it was getting worse, and we all went on deck. By 1 a.m. it was a shrieking gale, and we were bashing up against the T.B.D. properly. All the crew and we two officers stayed on deck till daylight, trying to hold our boat off, as every bump threatened to crush our side in. We succeeded in saving the boat, however, although the strain was terrific. Day broke, and the other M.L. was almost a wreck and had been abandoned by ner crew in case she sank. All'her side was split open, to say nothing of the deck. The T.B.D. had all her side plates strained, and was leaking badly. Our boat was best off, but all of us dog-tired. When we could see our way we cast off our ropes, and started off to try and get shelter, and at eight o'clock anchored under a lee, which, compared with the rest of the place, was calm water.

"Now the-gale is past, and we have details of events. It shows how lucky we were (and liow hard we worked) in holding her off. Two steamers ashore, another with her engines going all night taking tho strain off her anchors. Two others dragged close on five miles, and then steamed up against it,again ana repeated the dose. Through all this we had the pleasure of rain and hail in plenty, and we Vera all wet through and shivering. Our whisky ran out, so you can guess by the time wo got to- a calm place we were not sorry. After changing into dry togs my C.O. and I soaked our feet in hot mustard and water, and then ho turned in. I went on deck to see that a watch was set (in case wo dragged our anchor), and found the poor lad fast asleep on the deck. I woke him up, and sent him to bed, and took tho watch myself. At 2 p.m. I was played out, so L roused up the chief engineer, who did not have such a strenuous''time as the crew, and told him to take my place and call the crew at 4 p.m. L went down and turned in, and you can guess I did not need any rocking. However, my C.O. woke mo at 6 p.m., saying it was worse, and we were dragging, so up I got again, and we sought another shelter, and at 7 p.m. were onco more snug. Tea over, wo went to our bunks and slept 12 hours. Today we are still riding it out, and heing six days' overdue, my C.O. iias just gone ashore to wire the base, in case thev think we had Davy Jones locker. The cola is" intense. "We have kerosene stoves for heating, but no kerosene. This morning »ve hailed a fishing smack anchored close to us. and arranged an exchange of 10 gallons of our petrol for 10 of his kerosene. Just as he lifted it up to hand to us his boat gave a lurch, and overboard it went. However, the second lot got aboard safely. We will sivo him 20 for another 10, as it is hard luck, for him to stand the loss. When we get our heaters going, what oh! for dry clothes. The wind is still blowing a gale, so when we get back to our base the Lord knows, I don't. This life is great : it is very hard and cruel, but I like it down to the ground. No two days are alike. However, wo take the bad with the good and keep smiling."