HOVE-TO BY A CRUISER

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2273, 6 October 1914, Page 5

HOVE-TO BY A CRUISER

WHAT A RACING WARSHIP LOOKS LIKE. An exciting and inspiring sight was witnessed by fhe passengers ion the stauner Matarani,' which arrived in Sydney last week, when she was off the northern coast of _ Sumatra. She was hove-to by a cruiser, but was after-' waTds allowed to continue her voyage. "It was an impressive sight," a, passenger declared. "The first thing we noticed was a dark spot on the horizon. Then, in an' almost incredibly short time, it was resolved into the full outline of a cruiser travelling at high speed. She was flying no ensign, and several nervous women passengers required reassuring. She looked magnificent. Her bows threw up whit© cascades of foam as she raced along at what must have been nearly 28 knots an hour, and as she drew close her strinped decks revealed her like a bat tlemented fort of steol. As she manoeuvred, her guns were kept trained on the Mataram. The , cruiser careered right round us as we lay hove-to, .and then brought up so close that you would have thought you could have thrown a stone on her decks. She gave tho Mataram certain instructions, and then raced away But as •she loft lier guns were- steadily turned Btomwardu." It was learned afterwards by the passengers that the same cruiser a few days later met a German merchantman ; possibly tho converted cruiser Princess Alice, in the Straits of Sumatra, and sank her. _ On the outward voyage from Australia the Mataram, wliich was at Cairns when news of the outbreak of the war was received, in- 1 tercopted a number of wireless mespnges between German warships, but thoy were in code. She was delayed two day's at Cairns, and eight days at Thursday Island, and then ran direct to Singapore. Acting under Admiralty instruotlons, her return voyage was s-lso Ja ft difiereatmiuto ftsa uauaL