WITH THE GRAND FLEET

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2664, 8 January 1916, Page 3

WITH THE GRAND FLEET

AUSTRALIA IN NORTH SEA THE CRUISER PATROL (By L. Cope 'Comford, "Daily Express" _ Special Correspondent.) The Australian and Ne\v Zealand troops in the Gallipoli Peninsula havo won a reputation second to none. His Majesty's Australian ship Australia, battle-cruiser, is now with the Grana Fleet, the flagship of Rear-Admiral William C. Pakehliam, 0.13., M.V.O. She has joined the Fleet by , arrangement between the two Governments, of Great Britain and tho Commonwealth. Her officers are lent to the' Australian Government for a period of years.' Her men are nearly all Australians. • Tq H.M.A.S. Australia; Captain Ste.pheu H. Radcliffe, flagship of Rear-Ad-miral Sir George 15. Patey, K.C.V.O. (according to tie' Navy. List of July, 1914), and tho rest of tho. Australian Navy are duo'.tho holding of the other end of tho Pacific trade routes at the beginning of the: war. That" achievement demonstrated on'ce for all (let us hope) the necessity of guarding the. trado routes- at both ends, - instead of relying upon- a reserve force of cruisers stationed in the home ports. The exploits of the Emden, Captain von Muller, and the other German cruisers taught a sufficiently costly lesson., H.M.A.S. Sydney destroyed the Emden. The Australian Navy, clone among the colonial naval; forccs, ' showed what ought to be done.

Ungrudged Escape, On board tlio Australia the present writer learned incidentally that the German landing party from tlio Emden, which destroyed ,tho telegraphic apparatus in the Cocos-Keeliug Islands; made good their escape. .'They had bidden a cordial farewell to tlio cable., and telegjraph/staff and had pushed off when tuey beheld r the Emdeu putting to sea to engage the Sydney. The landing pan., ...ooauuly returned to the island, requisitioned. stores, and took the Ayesha, the yacht belonging to Mr. CluniesRoss, owner of the . islands, and so set sail ajid departed. Presumably, as the wind set that way,' they fetched up in the Dutch East Indies. Those Germans had shown courtesy and consideration, and no one_ grudges them their escape. These things' and others ono learned in the bare white cardroom of H.M.A;S. Australia, where also more ghosts began to appear. Thero rose the phantom of H.nl.S. Cresset, (which was not her name), the little ship in which (long ago);, her- dogged commander—a taut hand,' as they say—accomplished one of the great voyages'of Lnglish naval history, and then left the navy. He has since returned, and is now fighting;: an occupation for which a iust Providence especially designed iim. VHere, too, is the ghost of the officer who was superintending the chip-, ping of the rust from the plates of the Cresset when the carpenter chipped through them into the. sea.

Reckless Courage, H.M.A.S. Australia, after her many adventures and deeds in the ; Pacific, during which slio records' iu bteannng, and of which-, the'brave'story is still to tell, came north to join the fleet; and here she is, a piece of Australia, armed and alert, afloat in the northern sea. What of"her men? They bring with them the spirit of Australia, which would, s'eem to bo compounded of high confidence, independence, coolness, sense, hardihood, and reckless courage. It used to be. said that..the Australians would never, talco on naval- discipline. But they have taken it on; with a difference. The diiferer.ee does not extend to' ossentials. Discipline is a subject of a delicacy so fragile that it can only, as it. were,, be indicated with a gesture. You,may look, but you must not touch, But it may be said that discipline is conceived with a single _ purpose; and. so long as that purpose is achieved methods must vary as the men vary.. The scale ruin» from flogging a delinquent'through the fleet in -eighteen-hundred-and-war-time, to a verbal admonition in nineteen-fifteen-aiid-war-time. If every, man was perfect; he would impeso. his own discipline on himself." 'ihereforo the better the type of man the higher the.discipline, and the less the penalties inflicted: The Australian sailors are of ii-good class of society ; more it'would be impertinent; to say. But the kind of condition may be inferred from the circumstance that the parents of a sea.nian, what time the ship was refitting, sent a siim of money to the'captain, asking him to expend it in the interval upon thoir 6or.'s education. The Australian rate of pay is higher than the English rate. Part.of it is deferred ; for pension; but tlio balance amounts to a higher rate, than the English. naval seaman receives. ' Probably the separation allowance of the English seaman—and the Government never did a better thing in their lives than the granting of separation allowances—goe6 So square the discrepancy. - Peace on the Pacific. ■

The presence of H.M.A.S. Australia with the main Fleet incidentally exemplifies liow complete is "the abolition of the German flag. Peace reigns' on the broad Pacific; were it otherwiso - the Australia would be down south. The Commonwealth has done greatly. The generations of her exotic, stormy, and , wilful history have flowered in the storm into those, magnificent regiments, into this , tall ship manned • by the native- ' born. To Australia! , H.M.A.S. Australia sinks away into the .wrack and .rain, as. tha lorpwt*boat recedes and passes to the ranks of light cruisers. A. squadron has but How returned from a cruise, sea-stain-ed. their funnels crusted with salt. Returned from shoving at so many knots against a head-sea, throe days and nights on end, during; which time the captains remained on the bridge, and the ships' boys were very seasick down below. What are the cruisers doing? The admiral knows, and that is enough. • To the regular cruiser squadrons aTe pdded the armed! auxiliary cruiser patrols, which keep the sea for three consecutive weeks without touching the shore. What pre these doing? It can .hardly be indiscreet to say that they are exercising what is incorrectly called the blockade of the enemy, • but which is really the right of search. The method is broadly- as follows:. When a ship is sighted the patrol ,cruiser bears down unon her, signals orders to her to stop, and sends a visiting officer on board her to examine her papers. The work is always arduous and often dangerous. The boat must bo got away, however high the s?a, and somehow or other the • visiting officer must get on board the ship Hying a neutral flag. That ship, whatover flag Khe flies, may be, and often is. Ger-man-owned. There have been times whon the visiting officer has leaped from the boat, borno up on-the crest of R wave, upon the deck of the ship. There have been times when the wholo boat has been washed on board the ship and the men have disembarked without mishap. Then, if the visiting officer, on examination of the ship's- papers, finds reason for sending the vessel into port for Adjudication by the Prize Court, a prizo crew, under command of an officer, must be 'transhipped from the patrol cruiser to the neutral. The prize officer thou takes the ship into port; and the patrol cruiser proceeds upon her beat. You are to conceive this process occurring with'- variations many hundred times during the past .15 months in several wide sea areas, without the least intermission. It is Dart

of the routine of tho Fleet in war; and it is carried into execution with the help of a large contingent of the officers .and men of tho merchant service enlisted for the purpose. Here, again, nothing more explicit than a general indication of the business is permiss!"le - The cruiser patrol is a part of the Grand Fleet which is out. of sight, the Grand Fleet is the regular army; tho cruiser patrols are the policemen. In tho Autumn Haze. They have no timo for. recreation on shore. Ihey fall into harbour when and where they can, for just so long as iu may take to fit tho ship for sea again, I aiia then they sail once more. But there are brief periods when officers an<l men of a part of the Grand Fleet I may land for . a few hours, and walk on tho firm earth, and shoot across it on motor bicycles, and play football. 1 here is no leavo, save in exceptional cases tor a very short time. 1 ere is a pendant to tho harsh sea pictures of the Fleet in northern waters, it lies quiescent within ■ sight of the low hills, golden and lading into blue, ine ereat ships, gleaming in .the sun and darkening in the shadow, one beyond another into the coloured autumn haze. Nearer hand tho black destroyers are graven on tho steelbright water as though carved in coal, 310 , w .' and again they are slashed witn wiiite, as a seagull stoops to tho sea. Along the waterway between the [ i 5 S lps a string of boats ladeir with mon and towed by a picketboat towards tho jetty. A grey old village moulders along the. shore; its silence is suddenly broken by the clash of marching music andthe tramp of marching mon. The band of the Royal Marines- heads a party of bluejackets; alongside marches a lieutenant ; in the .-ear come three or four imdshipmont, wearing an expression of patient boredom. The weathered, impassive faces of .the men express the single determination to go on putting one foot before tho other as requisite. Route marohing must be done. , , Tha Sentinel.

Prom near-by a Whistle sounds at intervals. There other parties are playing football. Presently you shall see .them swinging down to the jetty to take boot again. By this time the dying sunlight is veiled in. blue vapour, whose long-drawn films creep upon the still water. A last ray of sunset touches the'brass funnel of tho waiting picketboai to gold, which gleams like; a sunken coin in tho shadow beneath - the boat. Silently the boats put off and glide away towards the dim ships. . A single -figure remains upon the jetty. That unconscious Royal Marine, who is only a ship's postman waiting for the mail, may stand for the figure of- vigilance, typifying the sentinel of England, which iB the Fleet. / And yonder, slipping lightless through the dusk, a cruiser steern seaward, and another, and' another.