PRIZE COURT AWARDS

Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1920, Page 1

PRIZE COURT AWARDS

DESTR LJCTION OF SUBMARINES. Orders for the payment of bounties

in tliree cases of the sinking of enemy submarines by British ’vessels during the war were made in the Brize Court

recently. Five drifters were concerned in the initial stages of the attack on. the U4B, the final destruction of which was carried out by the destroyer Gipsy. It appeared from the affidavit of Lieu-tenant-Commander Frederick William Robinson/ of the Royal Naval Reserve, that on November 24th 1917, when cruising off the Goodwins, he found the drifters Feasible, Paramount, Majesty, Acceptable and Present Help engaged in keeping the IJ4B in shoal water so., as to prevent her submerging. He immediately went to the assistance of the drifters and the submarine was destroyj ed. Nineteen survivors were rescued | and taken prisoners, and at the beginning of the engagement there was a crew of 43 persons. Sir Henry Duke, President of the Court, awarded £215. j In the case of the TJ.C.oo, Jneuten- ! ant-Commnnder H. J) .Crawford Stanistreet stated that his ship the Tirade, while acting ns escort off Lerwick, sighted the submarine and immediately steamed full-speed towards her. While this was being done H.M.S. Sylvia, under the command of Lieutenant Peter Shaw, since dead, opened fire upon, the submarine, as also did the tirade. The U.C.55 was hit repeatedly,' one shot striking the base of, the conning tower and disabling the submarine, which rose fully to the surface. The Tirade prepared to . ram the submarine, which, however, sank 300 yards away. He dropped depth charges over her to complete her destruction, and the Sylvia did the same. The crew ol the submarine' consisted of twenty-nine persons.

Tlic'award. in this case was £145. The destruction of U. 8.20 was accomplished by a couple of naval seaplanes.

..Describing this adventure in his affidavit, Major Arthur Thomas Barker, R.A.F., stated that on July 29th, 1917, he was sub-lieutenant, second in command of a seaplane under the command of Captain Charles Leslie Young, How dead. While flying over the North Sea with another seaplane under the command of Lieutenant (now Major) Warren R. Mackenzie, they saw / the submarine and commenced to bomb her. 'fhe first bomb fell on her stern and the submarine then pursued a zig-zag course on the surface fully awash. Further bombs were which took effect, and the submarine then sank by the stern, her bows coming up clear of the surface before she disappeared. He sides were .seen to burst open, and there were no survivors ol the crew, which consisted of twentyfour persons. The President awarded £l2O.