RUDYARD KIPLING ON THE NAVY

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2802, 21 June 1916, Page 5

RUDYARD KIPLING ON THE NAVY

(Copyright by Eudyard Kipling for 1916.) ?y Atsooilation--oo l pyriflit (Eec. June 21, 10.50 p.m.) London, June 20. Tli© following, from tho first of throe articles mitten from official icports bj Mr.-Kudyard Kipling on the, Navy, dealing with' the work of British submarines in the Baltic, describes the thrilling «piBode of Lieutenant Max Horton's submarine JI9, "in depths of winter, when taken to her hunting grounds by an icebreaker, and left to her own devices."

"When the open sea log recorded il as a circumstance favourable, it was decided to attempt to 'bag a destroyer. Afterwards sue sees three, but they are too far off. Later, in the failing light, she sees a fourth, towards which she manoeuvres, her depth-keeping very difficult, owing to ■ the swell. An tion balloon on a gusty day is almost as stable as a submarine jumping in a heavy swell, and since-the JJaltic is shallow, a submarine runs a chance of being let down with a whack on tho bottom. Nevertheless, E9 works her way to with' in six hundred yards of.her quarry, fires, waits long enough to be sure that the torpedo is running straight, and then dips to avoid detection. Within fifty seconds she heard the torpedo detonating. Four minutes later she rose, and found that the destroyer had disappeared; ,

"Then she goes to bed below, in the chill dark, till-the. time came to turn for homewards, when she rose, and met a storm from the north. , The- spray froze as it struok, and the bridge became a mass of ice. They experienced difficulty in keeping the c'onning-tower hatch, free of ice. The telegraphs ,were frozen. It was considered advisable to free the boat of ice, so they went below, and so proceeded through a series of snowstorms • till they got in touch with the ice-breaker. Somehow one has an idea that th.o ice-breaker has not arrived any too soon for E9's comfort. . ! .

"That was in Winter. In summer it was quite the other way. E9 had to! goto" Led by day, when the Baltic was smooth, and she could not get within a iniie and a half of anything with eyes without being put down. .Her reward came when she sighted the enemy's squadron coming fast from the eastwardtwo heavy battleships, with an escort of destroyers.-' „E9. • crept up to a threefunnelled fighter of : tho . DeutschlandBraunschweig class, and fired both bow torpedoes. The first struck just before the foremast funnel, and the smoke and debris appeared to go as high as the masthead. . -

"E9 had to go down quickly befoio an approaching destroyer, which only missed her. ■~',■

-"The submarine struck bottom at iortythreo feet, and then her second torpedoes wore heard to explode. : E9 rose twenty minutes later to s inake sure, and sa,v a destroyer awaiting her. acouple of hundred yards away. E9 dipped for life, but saw one large vessel five miles away." El;. also in the Baltic—Commander F. Laurence—had experiences 100. One evening they sighted' three transports. She hit the first, and while arranging for the second thd third tried to ram her, so it was necessary to" go down, and waste precious light. /When she arose again the stricken ship was sinking, and afterwards Mew up. The darkness defeated an attack on the others. El, during thick weather, came across a squadron of battle cruisers, and .got in on one'of the flanking ships, ■probably the Moltke, but had to dive immediately. A destroyer missed her by a few feet. The fog stopped further developments.

"It is. a pity the authorities do not Tealise .the stories of glorious failures, vken everything-goes wrong, when torpedoes break on the surface and scatter like ducks, or arrivefullsquare and fail to explode, when"the devil in charge of nil motors arid clutches developes a play that scares the shoregoing mecbanic'bald, when the batteries give, off death instead of power, and at tho top of all ice or wreckage racks and wrenches the-bull till the whole leaking bag of tricks limps home by the indomitable will of the red-, eyed, husky scarecrows in charge." .