ECHOES OF THE WAR AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 138, 6 March 1919, Page 7

ECHOES OF THE WAR AT SEA

Benzine Steamer Blown Up,

PERILOUS DAYS IN THE MERCHANT - SERVICE. CONVOYS AND THE U-BOATS 1 A thrilling story if a merchant sailor's life at sea 'during* the war is told in a letter written by the late' Mr. W. M'Clay, formerly an officer of the Darius.'The letter was"written from Liverpool,, where Mr. M'Clay was "taking a voyage off" to recover from fever and the effects of his experiences at sea. TJnfortuiiately, while resting ashore,' he died of pneumonic influenza. Describing his last voyage, he wrote:— ' "We>.had 1000 tons .of high explosive on board, distributed nil over the ship, from one end to the other in the bottom., /. ~ ,hist' within a month, of our arrival atAlexandria a steaifaer'loaded, like us had been torpedoed 15 miles outside the liartour. The other' vessels near saw just a vast, sheet of flame, nul heard a deafen, ing explosion, and then there was not a trace .of the unfortunate ship. I'rom. Alexandria we wenti.to Port Paid. Wo were there when the Goeben and Breslan broke out. There Were over 100 steamersin Port Said, and we were told afterwards that Port' Said was 'their objective. Just a few.days previously.a large 6teamer loaded with benzino had been blown up and sunk by enemy agencv as she came out of the canal into Port Said harbour. Had she blown uo.an hour earlier she would have blocked the canal altogether, tun}, the. immense shipping in Port, Said would have had no escape from the Goeben.. As it was, that scheme (if Echeme it was) failed, end the canal was clear. .

The blowing-up. of the benzine steamer was an awful business; She came out of the canal about 3 in the afternoon. I was on deck, and watching her as she approached us. when suddenlv the.re was a loud exnlosion, and the debris of her foredeck went up above her mastheads on top of 'a great sheet of flame. The first explosion was followed within a few seconds. by. a. second, and then a third, and . the debris of her'Nos. 2 and 3 hatches went no the same way,'before the •N>. 1 had scattered in the water. The whole fore-half of the steamer to the funnel was vomiting out 'great columns of smoke and flame, among which the bridge stood out like an island. 1 We thoupht everyone on the shio must bekilled,, but it turned out- that they jumped overboard at once, and were, nicked up. Several of the crew were killed. Some were trapped in the .forecastle rooms,'and roasted to death.' One noor fellow had his.'hend through a porthole,and -writhed and shrieked for 2" minutes; as he roasted before.he died...The porthole ' was top s.mall for him to get through. About a couple of minutes after the: explosions both her, anchors rattledout with all the cable,' and 'effectually anchored her .about a, quarter of a! mile from us,;in the midst of the shipping, so'tliat she' could not be towed -away. AVithip five minutes a boat from a British cruiser was ■ alongside lier. and I .the bluejackets boarded her and threw all the,gun"ammunition which they could get at, for both her fore and after "guns,' overboard, and made fast a strong wire hawser from a powerful tug." But no tug on earth could move her with- two anchors down and 100 fathoms of cable on each, and in an hour the heat melted the hawser and it broke. The sides were red-hot then,' but it 'was-.riot till 8 p.m. that her after-end blew up, which it then did with two great explosions from her Nos. 4 and 5 hatches. She was then alight from stem to stern. Finally, at 11 p.m., the fire exploded her gun maga-. zine I was asleep, but the deafening explosion shook our ship, and; of course, awoke me. I jumped out to see the ' whole stern of the burning vesßel blown completely away. Out through the opening the burning oil was pouring, over the water in a cataract of white fire. It was most awe-inspiring. Fortunately there was no wind, and there is no tide, or else harbour and town and ships might all hare gone ablaze. There-were two or three munition ships,. too,' insert; so that. Halifax"would not '.'have been in it if they had, caught fire. However; the authorities had a- floating boom around her by that time, and boats with fire hoses all round the hoom playing on it as' the burning oil drifted against it. The noise of the water boiling round the steamer's stern was very audible. Towards morning , the flames subsided somewhat, but she burned violently till the following morning,; when she sank. She was then unrecognisable.

Convoy Thrills—The Sardinia. We had a r'athor exciting time on tho •way home. There were 16 steamers left in the convoy. It was about half-past 7 p.m., pitch- dark, no moon, and dead calm, with the highly phosphorescent Mediterranean in calm weather. We could see. every ship in the convoy by the white-fire at her bow and in her wake. Suddenly away on the starboard side there was a gun fired, and: a red' rocket went up—a . warning from one of the escort that submarines were about.

We waited and watched, ajid then camesix short grunts on the steam whistle from one of the' convoy away to starboard (we were in the centre of the convoy). \That was .a signal that the ship , making it saw- a torpedo. We watched, but saw nothing, and no. explosion followed. A minute or two later came another six grunts from another ship, .and a few seconds later 'we saw a. white streak of fire come rushing at lightning speed between the two ships of the next column on our right and make for our bows. It was all a 'matter of seconds. We had no time to do anything before the white streak disappeared below our forecastle head. "My God," cried the captain, "she's got it," and rushed to tho telegraph. I held on to him. "No," I told him, "she hasn't. . It's passed ahead." "But she must have," he said, I pointed to the white streak now reappearing on our port bow, and going away from us. Before we had quits calmed down there came six more warning blasts, and away ahead we faintly saw the fatal white streak. The next instant there came a loud booming explosion, and the ship went ahead of'us, a proud P. and 0. liner lurched suddenly over, white from her t>ow roso a blast of fire and foam. "The Sardinia," exclaimed the captain, "and 110 women and children aboaid her. The only ship in the conToy with women and'children, and they'vo got her. Oh, my God."

In the silence that followed the explosion there rose, the crying, of frightened children. It rang in my ears for hours after. There were over 00, little children aboard the stricken ship. I quietly directed our steersman to steer a little to one side of her, judging that those on board would perhaps lose control of her, and she might do damage to others. And bo it turned out. As soon as she stopped and we went past her, she suddenly swerved over into us, and came as near to us as the torpedo had done. Her tews wero then nearly at water level. And bo we went on, and left her, the rest of the convoy.with, us, since to 6top would only mean being torpedoed also. We learned the next morning that every 60ul in the Sardinia had been .saved, anil that , the ship herself was still afloat..

Then we had n collision with one of our own firm's ships, .owing to the stupidity of three ships in the convoy who neglected to obey -orders. ' When our old man saw that a collision was inevitable he put our engines astern a minute, till we commenced to pny off, and then went ahead again for all he was worth, and swung us round alongside the other ship pi neatly-that although ; her boats (being swung outside, of course) were crushed like matchwood against our.sides, the two ships never touched.

The last night was a nightmare. It was a dense fog, and here were 16 large liners steaming along not 300 yards from each other at 10 knots an .Hour, yet unable to see anything but the dimmest dare of- the next ship's lights. Two ships, the Herefordshire. and-tke-ICalomn,. hit one-another.-■ Two nights later the Herefordshire cut- down, a sailing ship, and Ihe vessel that smashed into us cut a sailing ship clean in halves."