NAVAL OCCASIONS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2920, 4 November 1916, Page 10

NAVAL OCCASIONS

SOME ECHOES OF THE WAR

A CAPTAIN'S COMMAND

"Yes, 1 have seen somothing of tho war sinco 1 was last in Wellington," said tho captain; "transport work and so on. But a good deal of it must not bo told, and I am not much of a hand at spinning a yarn, anyway. The men who get the real thrills are in tho Navy —Jl.iS., -R.N.K., 1t.N.V.1t., and so on —and they don't talk at all except over tho mess-table. Alter two years of war things that would have seemed sensational are pretty much a matter of course to them.

"No, 1 have never scon an enemy submarine, though I have been close to ships that got torpedoed. I have heard gunfire, but I have not seen gun 3 at work, ours or the enemy's. Ono night the warning came that a ship had been torpedoed and sunk a couple of hours' steam ahead of us. We changed our course, promptly and made a run with lights out, according to orders received. We saw nothing and heard nothing but-what the wireless told us. At a port I saw a tramp come in with her bridge battered, her sides holed, and her decks scored by fragments of shell. She had met a German submarine, made a run for it, and got away tinder firo after a bit of dodging. Her skipper said the enemy seemed to he a bit nervous about closing in, though there was really nothing to be afraid of. I've heard that tho submarines have had surprises on occasions,

Anxious times? Oh, yes, in a. way. But one does not worry about the submarines or tho mines more than is necessary. A master who does that will lose liis norva sooner or later, and then he will have to look for a shoro job. Some good men have suffered that way already. The business got on their minds, you know, and they started dodging bits of seaweed and imagining dangers at times when there wore quite enough real ones to go round. The only way in these days is just to 'carry on' and deal with situations as they arise. When a ship is in dangerous waters tho master usually has fairly definite orders, and if lie sticks to them he can afford to take up a philosophical attitude with regard to the possibilities of meeting trouble. Men who liavo been in very tight corners have told mo that they attended to their job and just watched to see what was going to happen." The captain had tales to tell of many men, some of them famous, most of theni unknown oxcept in tho inner circles where they were serving the Empire quiotly and heroically. 'i'hero is a •'bilious littlo lieutenant" who commands a British submarine, and has received tho Victoria Cross from the hands of the King for deeds that demanded extraordinary skill and hardihood. This officer, like Nelson, is always seasick when he puts to sea, and, unlike the great admiral, ho doe s not recover until ho returns to port. He "gets yellower and more miserable tho wholo time, but he will take his boat miywhero at all." There are other men, hard-handed 6ailors of the old school, as scornful still of smart caps and gold lace as they wero in the days when trim meu-o'-war glided past thoir fishing smacks or tramp steamers. - They wear a uniform themselves now, but they will have even admirals understand that they have come to the assistance of "the servico" as independent men, and, as it were, without prejudice. "Queer things happen in war time," spid tho captain. "1 expect lots of people in this country have wished for news of a certain steamer that used to bo very familiar to them. Well, she is not the smart and comfortable passenger' boac any more. When 1 last heard of her, a month or two ago, she was in the Clyde for extensive repairs. Hor turbines wore said to be practically worn out, after a long spell of very severo work under frying conditions. She had done many thousands of miles at top speed in all weathers in waters infested bjr submarines. 1 heard that one dark night she was racing from one port to another port—it might not do to mention namos—in a heavy sea, with all lights out. Something dark "looked ahead; and almosii befoie she could answer her helm she was driving past a- British cruiser, running at twenty knots or so in the other direction. The ships almost touched; they had missed a head-on collision by a matter of feet, and in a few moments thoy had lost one another again. All in' the day's work."

"Would you think it possible for a big steamer with a full cargo to get mislaid? Well, there was a case of that kind. The ship had frown meat oil board, and the stuff was wanted for the troops in one of the war zones. Tho master was instructed to take her to a certain port and wait there for further orders. Ho waited week after week and no orders' cauio. In the meantime the Army authorities, at a point not very far away, were commandeering meat from passing steamers, 'l'lio record regarding that waiting ship had gone astray, or got tucked into a pigeon-hole or something, ami nobody could -understand why the shortage of moat had arisen. • Not "until tho master telegraphed asking how much longer he was to keep his refrigerating plant running on his diminishing stock of coal did the authorities discover what was tho matter. No, 1 doift think that sort of thing has happened often. In fact, tlio big war machine seems to run with wonderful smoothness. I suppose a cog must slip sometimes. But when the final count is made the nation will find that very foiv of them have slipped in the sea services."