ECHOES OF WAR AT SEA

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 244, 9 July 1919, Page 8

ECHOES OF WAR AT SEA

THE CARMANIA'S FIGHT

SINKING OF THE CAP TRAFALGAR

[Note.— The lifting of the war ceiicorship has permitted writers to describo with picturesque detail some of the incidente of the war, regarding which only bald accounts have-previously appeared.] (By E. F. Kniijht, in the "Morning ■• ■ N Tost.")

A few days after England had declared war on Germany the Cunard Company's fine liner, the Carmania, of M.flOO lons gross measurement, crowded with passengers and , carrying f. krgo cargo, having completed her trans-Atlantic voyage, entered the docks at Liverpool. The Government had decided to use her as an armed merchant cruiser, and tho work nf conversion was started at once, even while the passengers were disembarking and baggage and mails we.ro being landed. An officer wiho joined her two days later found everything going at high pressure. Many operations were being evried on simultaneously—cargo was ■ being discharged: surplus stores and boats were being taken on shore; the ship was coaling; ammunition and provisions were being embarked: large parties of carpenters were pulling down cabin fittings ond getting rid of nil inflammable material below; eight 't.7 quick-firing funs i.ere beinz fitted, four on each side. While nil this work was in .progress 200 new inesi joined the ship, and the crew had to bo detailed and organised. And. wonderful to say, this transformation of i peaceful passeDger vessel into a formidable warshin. ahiip'l. eqiroppd, and manned, only neennied three days! By. noon on : the fourth day after her arrival at Liverpool she was ready and cleared for action. Pespite the hurry of her preparation slip rfliii prov»d liPiself to be a most efficient nghtintr shin, for it was onlv one month later that she fought her historic action wiHi fiin Cap Trafalgar.

The Carmnnia was commanded by Captain N«el flrant, 8.X.. and carried a crew of 465 men. The lieutenant-com-mander n,lso wes n naval officer; but tTis commander and thu thirty-three remainin? officers wer» all of the merchant service, lioldinir permntieit. or tempowv commission* in the 8.N.8. All the stokers were taken over from the Cnnard Company with the ship. T,!n> chief guiiner, the gunner's mate., and the armourer wnre B.N. One-third of (he. iMc rating" were R.F.K. men, tlm remninii!'.' two-, thirds were men of the merchant service, whe when they joined knew little nr nothing of naval rpiiHne or discipline, but. they were all very keen and too'.- to their unaccustomed duties us .a. duck , taV"i to water.

The Carmania sailed on August 12, and the training of the men was diligently carried out as she voyaged southwards. For her orders were to proceed fr> a rendezvous in tire Straits of Mnirellan, where she was to meet and attach herself to Admiral Crndock's squadron. But when she was approaching the lati-. hide of .Pernambuco she received instructions by wireless code to steam to Trinidad i and reconnoitre there. This, of couiss, was not the West Indian Trinidad, but ths desert island of the same nnmp in about latitude 20 S.. 600 miles off the coast of Brazil. T have twice visited Ihis island and spent s&mn ninths upon it. It is a mass of rujfged volcanic mountains, inhabited by sea birds and .land crabs only, with a heavy surf breaking almost unceasingly upon its inhospitable crags. Tn this early part of the war it wa<= used by the German raiders ae a rendezvous at which they met the vessels that supplied them with coal and stores. The Raider Sighted. The Carmania, at 9.30 in the morning of Septomber 14, 19U. raised the peaks of Trinidad to the S.S.E. As she came nearer a large steamer was perceived to bo lying at anchor about two miles off the west, side of the island. Then it was seen that this vessel had two masts and that her funnels were painted black and red after the manner of a UnionCastle liner., But this disguise did. not deceive tho officers of.the' Carmania.'and getting closer they were able'to pielcout detail which satisfied them that this was one of the German raiders. She was flying no colours. Two colliers were alongside of her from which she was taking coal as rapidly a3 possible. A third collier, Hying the American iiag, was lying at some distance off. As the Carmania, living the white ensign, closed the strango vessel, signs of excitement were obseived on the latter, and the two colliers that were coaling her cast oif and hurried away at full-speed; but the third collier stood her ground, and from a distance of about five miles watched the engagement that followed. Tho vessel, which was identified as an auxiliary cruiser, Cap Trafalgar—a fine German liner of about the same tonnage as tho Cann;»nia—now weighed her anchor and steamed away to tho southward as fast as she could travel. She sent repeated wireless messages, apparently lo some German cruiser not many miles away. The . Carmania intercepted and deciphered one of these messages, and also tho reply that was given by the cruiser; the message ian: "Enemy ship in sight. Shall we engage?" f.nd the reply was: "Yes, until wo come up." The Carmania, at full speed, gave chase to the Cap Trafalgar, and at ten minutes after mid-day, the rango being-then 7500 yards, fired a shot across her bows as a challenge. The Cap Trafalgar immediately replied with the gun on her starboard quarter, and simultaneously the German ensign was broken at both mastheads and at the flagstaff aft. She had accepted the challenge, and row turning round she steamed back to rceet hep foe and fight.it out to the death with him..-The two great ships were well matched. The Carmania carried the larger guns, 4.7'5, but these were tv.enty years old with obsolete breech-block me*chanism. and could not bo ilm! nci.rly as rapidly as the Cap Trafalgar's eight new. semi-automatic 4.l's. The German ship, too, had the advantage in speed. The weather favoured accurate marksmanship, for the sea was calm and tho tropic sky was cloudless overhead. • The Ships on Fire, The two ship.s approached each other rapidly, each manoeuvring for position. The action now waxed fast and furious, each ship pumping shell into the other at a range that for a while was closed to 2800 yards, and many were the hits on both sides. The Cap Trafalgar for the most part directed her tire on the Carmania'e superstructure, her bridge and funnels, while one shell struck the mast iust below the crow's nest. When the two ships were close enough the Germans opened lira with pompoms, but the Ciirii:ania manoeuvred so as to keep just out ot' range of this hail of small projectiles and few hit her.

Captain Grant was nn officer who fought his ship after the energetic fashion of the Nelson days. Having closed with the enemy ship he concentrated Iris lire low down on her waterlinn with the object of sinking her at once before the cruiser to which she had signalled could como to hoi , support. On the other hand, the enemy's high-aimed fire had for its object the disablement and putlin? out of action of the Carmania. A r(uarter of nn hour after tho opening of tlin action fires had broken out in both the forward nnd after part of tho Cap Trafalgar, and from this time her fire, which had been accurate, becamo r-omewhat erratic. In tho meantime, there was trouble in the Carmania. An enemy's shell passed through the officers' cabins, which wore situated just under the bridge. Tliey had been left intact when Ihe cabins below had been stripped of their woodwork in Liverpool. Consunuently a fire was started in these cabins, which at once spread to the superstructure; the entire bridge was ablaze, the flames leaping tn n height of sixty or seventy feet. The rangefinder, the telegraph, the wheel, nnd most of the navigation gear were destroyed. The shin had now tn ho manoeuvred l>y means of a. steering gear, which was right aft, deep below the waterline. Captain Grant came aft, and conned his ship from the after mooring bridge, where Lieutenant-Com-mander W. O'Neill, . an R.N.I?, officer of the Mercantile Marine, was in charge of tho secondary control. Tho Carmania was now able, tt a range of

13200 yards, to bring Jive of hor guns (the two quarter guns and '.hrce of her port guns) to bear upon the enemy. There was no range-finder, and O'Neill had to find the range by guesswork: with telescope or naked eye. After giving the ranges ho instructed the gmilayers to make their own corrections for tall of shot and lo iiim low. The lire was most effective, end riddled the Cap Trafalgar on Hie starboard side. (J'iNeill tells me that; the gunlityers were wonderful. They were solid old tars, mostly i.f from forty lo fifty years uf age, wterans of the rJavy, who had been >alle<l buck to tho Service on the outbreak of war. "They fairly gave it to the >-nemy in tho neck, their aim was unerring; [hey revelled in tho fight, like the tars i-f Nelson's days." Victory, Ths Cap Trafalgar now began to list d> starboard, showing that Hie sea. was pouring into her through tho holes that our guns had driven inro l-er sides below her water-lmo. -About forly minutes ailor the opening of the detum eho began to draw away, dropping bJlund her several nnn.es as she retired; but these were seen from the Carmania and were avoided by hkilful uss of the helm. .'.I ho Carmania followed her up, firing nt her all the while; but the Cap Trafalgar, with her superior speed, drew ever further away, and was scon beyond ilic -iinge of the Cnrmania's guns. Ho f'nptain Grant gave the order to sense fire. But the enemy was mortally wounded; her list to starboard rapidly increased, and she begun to sink by the head. About ten boats were seen to put off from her with the survivors of her crew. Then, at 2.15 p.m., her bows made a downward plunge, her stern stood up high in the air, and down she went with her colours flying to the last. Immediately before she sank her starboard after gun. with which she had opened the action, fired a final shot at the Carmania. It hud lj(;en a glorious light, and had been fought to the finish with the ereatest gallantry on either side. The collier that had watched the fight now approached the Gorman boats, and (he Ciirmania also wa?, Jteaming towards them, with the object of. taking off the survivors, when a cruiser was sighted to die northward, making for the scene of action. This could be none other thin the German cruiser, to which the Cap Trafalgar had signalled. Th? Carmania was now in lio condition to light another battle. She was still badly on fire; she was riddled with holes; she was running short of ammunition. So the fires were double banked and she mads away at '"•ill speed to the southward, not that she had much chance of escaping this new enemy, whose speed probably .exceeded her own by at least six knots. 'It seemed almost certain that the German cruiser would overhaul, her and make her fight or surrender. Captain Grant w,i3 not the man to adopt the latter alternative. He had a flood'ing party told oft' ready to open tho sea-cocks. It wr.s his intention to fight until hie last shot was nxpyided in the hope of destroying the German, and if he failed, then he would sink his own ship. Hut fortune favoured tho gallant Carmania, for she lost the enemy before night set in. Jt was conjectured that either the cruiser had stopped to pick up survivors and give medical aid or had been delayed by somo enj:ine trouble. So soon as it was certain that the enemy had been shakc-n off the cour.-e of the Carmania. wosalieml to the westward and during the night her dead were buried. Battered and bruised, the JinrTsh armed merchantman got safely away, was ultimately made seaworthy again and lived to accomplish a lot more valuable war work for England.