THREE NAVAL V.C.'S

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 270, 11 August 1919, Page 5

THREE NAVAL V.C.'S

SON STEERS WITH FATHER DEAD BESIDE HIM. Three posthumous awards of t[ie V.C. to navai officers are announced in a suppiemont to tho "London Gazette" of May last.- Lieut-Commander Geoffrey Saxton White, R.N., left Mu.dros.in tho El 4 on January 27, 1918. to force the Narrows and attack • the Goeben, reported to be aground after her sortie. El 4 could not find her, and on the morning of January 28, fired a torpedo at an enemy ship. A heavy explosion followed, all the lights in El 4 went out, and she sprang a leak, but dived./ Later, sho got out of control, and as the air supply was nearly exhausted, Commander White brought her to tho surface. Sho ran tho gauntlet of- thebatteries on both shores for half an hour, and was badly damaged. Commander White then turned towards the shore in order to savo the orew, and remained on deck until ho was kilted by a shell. After nearly four years, Lieut Frederick Par,slow, R.N.R., is awarded the V.C. for gallantry when in command of the horse-transport Anglo-Californian on July 4, 1915, The ship was unarmed, and was shelled by a submarine for an hour and a half. Lieut. Pnrstaw stopped tho ship to get somo of the crew away, and then, receiving a messago from a destroyer, started again and hold on for half an lour. He was killed, but two destroyers arrived, forcing tho submarine to dive, and tho ship was saved. His son, Sub-Lieut. Parslow, R.N.R., won the D.S.C. for steering the ship back to port whilo tho father lay dead beside him on tho wrecked bridge. When the heavily-armed raider Moewo ordered tho Qbaki to stop on March 10, 1917, Lieut. Archibald Bissot Smith, R.N.R., refused, and put up a 20 minutes' fight with one 4.7 gam, scored soveral hits, and started a firo in the Moewe, which look three days to put out. Lieut. Smith got the crow away, but wont down with his ship, with the British colours still flying.