A GALLANT SAILOR

Hokitika Guardian, 15 March 1921, Page 3

A GALLANT SAILOR

Tile cables on Friday referred to a notable action by Captain Evans of the British cruiser Carlisle in saving the lives of 100 drowning Chinamen. AN ADVENTUROUS CAREER.

WORK IN ANTARCTICA. Few men have had a more adventurous career than Captain Evans, now of H..M.S. Carlisle. lie was Scott’s lieutenant in the ill-fated Antarctic expedition of 1910, in which lie would have accompanied Scott to the Pole but for the fact that lie had to he sent back with the second supporting party, and lie took the final leave of his chief on Janaury 28. Of that parting Scott wrote: “Teddy Evans is terribly disappointed, hut has taken it very well, and behaved like a mail. Poor old Croat! wept, and even Rashly was affected. I was glad to find their sledge is a mere nothing to them, and thus j no doubt they will make a quick jour- !

to ir'v back,” | at An appendix to the volume doseritill , ing Evans’s perilous return journey ( 11- says: "Under average conditions, the) ds ietuin party should have well fulfilled ut Scott’s cheery anticipations. Threct- men teams have done excellently on id previous sledging expeditions, whether a- in Discovery days or as recently as re the mid-winter visits to the Emperor |i- penguins rookery, and the three in this s, partv were seasoned travellers with a I skilled navigator to lead them. Hut a blizzard held them up l>r three days before reaching the head of the , ,i glacier. They had to press on at t> .speed. Hy the time they reached the loot of the glacier Lieutenant Evans , developed symptoms of scurvy. His spring work of surveying and sledging u out to Corner Camp, and the manu hauling with Lustily, across the Barriei v after the breakdown of the motors, had been successfully accomplished; this I sequel to the Glacier. and Summit I marches was an unexpected blow . (> Withal he continued to pull while L hearing the heavy strain ot guiding the s course. While the hauling power thus t grew less, the leader had to make up for loss of speed by lengthening the j working hours. He put his watch on I an hour. With the "turning out” .-ig- 1 , mil thus advanced, the actual march- * ’ iug period reached twelve hours. The situation was saved, and Evans flattei-. (>d himself on his ingenuity. Hut the men knew it all the time, and no word I said! i I At One Ton Camp he was unable to I stand without the support of- his ski- i i sticks, but with the help ot his companions struggled on another liity-tlnee (: miles in four days. Then he could go • no further. 11 is companions rejecting a his suggestion that he should be leit in I his sleeping-bag with a supply ot pro- fi visions while they pressed on for help, ; ■•cached” everything that could be 1 spared, and pulled him on the sledge, t with a devotion matching that ot their f captain years before, when lie and Wil- ’ ; son brought their companion Shackle- C ’ ton, ill and helpless, sately home to the t Discovery. Lour days of tliir pulling, - with a southerly wind to help, brought them to Corner Camp. Then came a 1 heavy snowfall; the sledge could not b i 1 travel. It was a critical moment, a i Next day, (Yean set out to tramp alone j ; to Hut Point, thirty-four miles away, > | Laslily stayed fo nurse Lieutenant j 'j Evans, and most certainly saved his > i life, till help came. Crean reached | j Hut Point after an exhausting march. | of eighteen hours; lmw the dog teams. | went to the rescue is told by Dr Atkin--1 son.. At the Discovery hut Evans was, i unremittingly tended by Dr Atkinson, j i and finally sent by sledges to the Terra ; <• | Xovn. It is good to record that Doth ; o Laslily and Crean received the Albert , <> Medal. j j ti ' BRILLIANT NAVAL ACTION. " | 11 1 EIGHT tn the CHANNEL. L ! Captain Evans was commander of the ; C | destroyer Broke in the brilliant action j ti 1 in which two British destroyers inter- ;1 j cepted six German raiders that bad “ j got as far as Dover, and sank three and [ 1 i disabled a fourth. The official aeeount j J at the time said : - j - | "The British destroyer leaders, Swift | j and Broke, who were patrolling the * , Channel, sighted the enemy at 12.40 a.m., steaming at high speed. The ! night was calm and intensely dark. The v were within 000 yards when first ai seen. Simultaneously the German lire gongs sounded, and the Germans opened fire. The Swift instantly replied. Commander Peck decided to ram the leading to destroyer. The Swift, with everyone J. assembled on the bridge, blinded by pr the flashes, drown down straight on the to She missed her prey, hut - traversed the lino of enemies nnseatched. Tlien she turned hawk-like, upon her quarry, and while turning torpedo- "S ed another Ivont. Again the Swift dash- 1 ed at the leading enemy, which again ~1 eluded her, atul without firing another p c shot went off at full speed in the dark- a t ness, the Swift, pursuing. ]?« “Tn the meantime the Broke (Com oi 1 mander Evans) was steaming astern of pi the Swift, and on the latter altering her course to ram the leader of the t

) Germans the Broke, torpedoed the se- . corn! boat in the line and opened fire • with every gun. Then, gathering speed i for the blow, she swung to port and rammed the third German at- full speed, striking her fair and square abreast of the after funnel. Thus locked the boats fought desperately in a hand to hand conflict. The Broke swept the enemy’s decks at pointblank range with every gun from the main armaments to rifles and pistols. Thp remaining destroyers in the Gorman line poured in a devastating fire on the Broke and the foremost gun crews were reduced from eighteen to six. Midshipman Gyles, in charge of th,, forecastle, though wounded in the eye, kept all the foremost guns in action, assisting the depleted crews to load. Meanwhile a number of frenzied Germans swarmed on the Broke’s forecastle from the rammed destroyer and rushed aft. Gyles, half blinded by his blood, met the rush single-handed with a revolver, which a German attempted to seize Seaman Ingleson promptly bayoneted him and the remaindcjr, except 'two. who feigned death, and were captured, were driven overboard.

“The Broke, two minutes after ramming, wrenched herself free from her sinking adversary, and attempted to ram the last boat in the line. She failed, hut hit the latter’s consort with a torpedo. The Broke, hotly engaged with these two fleeing destroyers, followed the Swift, hut a shell struck the Broke’s boiler room, disabling the main engines. The,, enemy vanished in the darkness, hut later the Broke torpedoed and sank another destroyer. and the German that had been rammed sank a little later. The Swift, using her searchlights, rescued the survivors.