HIS MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 January 1918, Page 3

HIS MOST DANGEROUS MOMENT.

A SEAMAN’S NARRATIVE

I A gunner was showing the sights 01 his big gun and became communicative. He had been in the Jutland, battle. He had fought this very gun all through the Jutland battle. Ho- . Then came the catastrophe. “What was the most dangerous moment Aon were ever up against?” The gunner stiffened under the question. But he did not hesitate. Here was his chance. 'Here was his chance to promote the purposes of the Government at London in its courteous tolerance of processions of journalists through the Fleet. Here was liis chance to do his hit In the publicity line for the prestige of tlfo Navy and the Empire. He did it. Tie did it in a way that convinced me, just as thousand other incidents convinced me, that prestige is the last filing the Eng. lish care about. Without one moment’s hesitation that gunner plunged headlong into the following appalling yarn: It was in South America, and we were lying i n port, and T wasn’t thinking of any dangers, of course, and 1 was cleaning my gun in my turret, and T opened the breech just like this, and, of course, I didn’t, know that there was any visitors on board, but there was, because the President of tlie country was invited to come aboard, and bo came and lie brought his wife with him, and there they "ere on deck, and f suppose she wanted to see what a gun was like, hut how could I know what she was doing, so 1 opened the breech just like 'this, and 'the compressed air went through ilist, like this, like you hear it now, like a storm, and all at once T heard a screech, an awful screech, like a woman, and the n I heard men’ yelling on the deck and running around and shouting, and it was a terrible row hi'd the chief gunner came running to me. and he said, if the wife of a Presj dent wants to look dou;n the muzzle of one of IT Is .Majesty’s guns, why must you go and pick just that minute to do if lot of messy cleaning, and to go and open the breech and the.v’s picked that lady off the deck, he said, and they’ve picked her hair off the rail, and they’ve picked her hat out of the sea, he said, and I’m sorry for you he said, and he went away, and the captain sent for me, and he said all you’ve done this morning he said, is to do your best to start a bloody war between this here republic and the British Empire, that all you’ve done, Jic said. You may go.” He came to the end of this powers* and preposterous banality and lie looked his questioner right in the eye, and “So that Sir,” he said, “was the .‘most dangerous momentl evdr had myself.’’