WORK OF THE NAVY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2391, 22 February 1915, Page 7

WORK OF THE NAVY

NEW. ZEALANDER'S STORY, ■AN- EXCITING DAY. Mr. J. Sinclair Thomson, who is well known in Dunedin, lias three of his four sons serving at the front. The youngest is under ago, and. one, Lieutenant Colin Sinclair Thomson, is serving on a destroyer at present in activo commission in tho North Sea. Judging by received, by his father his boat is having a lively time.

Writing in September, Lieutenant, Thomson refers to the bad weather being experienced, and. says'that a destroyer on a calm dav is a very different weapon from the same ship in a gale. One-half of the officers and ship's company are. more or less seasick, and no one can get any fojd or sleep. The German submarines seemed to be good sea boats, but happily they appeared to be poor shots when it came to the critical -moment, because a number of our ships had been missed. Some had also been .hit by submarines which had not exploded. "They appeared l amongst us the other say," says the lieutenant, "and we had a lively five minutes." He'then relates an experience in action. "It was a. night affair in which we could not see whom we were shooting at or who was shooting at us. We do not know what damage we did to the enemy but they put" one shell into us. .It was a wonderful piece of hiclc that no one was injured. It was early on the morning of the Scarborough raid, and German ships were all over the place. We had _to reduce speed and dVop out of the line to see what the damage was,, as we were fnl lof water forward, and when daylight came we were by ourselves. It was an exciting day, as wo could not steojn'fast. The weather was awful, and just when we were making the best of our way to the nearest port, we heard that the Germans were practically between us and it. We had to risk meeting them, and sure enough about two o'clock .in the afternoon saw them—five large, fast cruisers, like tlie New Zealand, only Kirger • and 1 faster. We did out best to run, but had to slow' down. However, they either did not see -us_ or they thought it hot worth while chasing us', as they passed us about 10 •' miles ofF. The destroyer sent to support us was fired at by a German, cruiser, but escaped and picked us tip later 011. In a later letter. Lieutenant Thomson says it appears that they were luckier than liey thought to escape. The German cruisers actually fired on one of their shies, and it was. simply marvellous that they did not see the injured destroyer in the daylight.