THRILLING WAR SERVICE

Hokitika Guardian, 7 June 1927, Page 4

THRILLING WAR SERVICE

A STEAMER'S HISTORY. HOW THK EMDEN AY AS TRAPPED. AUCKLAND, June 2. In January of this; year the Jiriti.sli freighter Karroo caught fire while ill New York harhotir. To-dav the City of Khartoum is lying at Princes W haiT, Auckland. She is the Karroo, re-nam-ed and repaired. The City of Khartoum bears no traces of her disastrous lire.

On January 21 a fire, which had been smouldering for some time, was discovered in a hold of the .ship, and when tiie hatches were removed the flames broke out with the force of a volcano. Approximately 1,000,000 dollars’ worth of damage was done. The alter end of the ship settled down into six foot of mud on the hed of the harbour, hut it was not the end of the Karroo’s career. The vessel was raised and repaired, and now she has arrived from New York on her first voyage since she was recommissioned and renamed City of Khartoum. Few merchant vessels afloat can boast a war record as distinguished as that of the City of Khartoum. " Well

done. Karroo,” was a wireless message sent out by Admiral Sir Lewis Hay-

ley for all ships to pick tip. after one of the Karroo’s stirring and triumphant fights, hours long, with a German submarine.

This is but one incident in the British freighter’s war record. She sent news of the whereabouts of the raider Emden to the flagship of an Australian convoy. She landed the first fieldgun at Anzao. She fought many stillmarines, time and again escaping the dangers of naval war. The Karroo was in Brisbane when war was declared, and was immediately rcfjiiistioned by the naval authorities and ordered to Sydney. At Sydney she was fitted out as a transport.

Tile sinking of tlie Emden is history now. hut few knew how the raider came to he located at Cocos Island. Early on November 9, 1914, the wireless operator of the Karroo intercepted messages in code from the lf.mden to the captured British steamer Bure.sk, her attendant collier. It was obvious that if the Karroo communicated tin's valuable information to the Australian flagship by wireless, the Emden’s operator would pick up the messages, and the raider would immediately make good her escape. This being so, the Karroo’s captain acted on his own responsibility, deliberately drawing his ship out of line in the convoy. He then signalled visually the startling information that his “sparks” had picked up. H.M.A.S. Sydney was then desptached to make inquiries at Cocos Island, and the result lias filled a page of history. On April 25. 1915. the Karroo, with the fourth, fifth, and eighth' batteries of Australian artillery on board, was at Anzao. She was driven out ol her anchorage hv heavy fire from Turkish field batteries and forts, and was ordered by her flagship to stand off. The need for the guns, however, was urgent, and the vessel was recalled. Manoeuvring inside the warships, she disembarked the guns, limbers, horses,

ammunition and troops, all the lime being under heavy tire. Meanwhile British battleships sent broadside alter broadside on to the enemy’s position on the heights above. The blast of the warship’s salvoes fired over the Karroo’s decks tore lamps and fixtures from their fastenings, smashed the ship's crockery to atoms, and caused everything movable to jump about. Coder these conditions was the first field-gun landed.

Later the Karroo formed one of the squadron of warships and transports which was engaged in making dummy Inudings in the Hull' of Karos, and she was also used in the evacuation of Sulvii and An/.ac. as well as in that of Cape Holies. Thence to the end of the war, the

Kaireo’s career was one long succession of battles with Herman submarines. She sank one l -boat and withstood no fewer than three attacks, while on three other occasions she made good her cs ape from the enemy. On one occasion a shell of the high explosive variety went through the deck and burst at the port side of the engine-room casing, completely wrecking the chief engineer's cabin. Pieces of steel pinto wore driven right through ilic bulkhead into the engine-room, and a fire started, filling the engine-room with suffocating smoke. This caused a panic among the Lascar greasers and firemen, hut tiie engineers stuck to their posts, quickly and effectively stopping with their revolvers a mad stampede to the deck. In one attack in the Atlantic, tlie

Karroo was the target for no fewer than I!) I shells, and a curious visitor to the ship can still see the sears of Ibis conflict. The present chief engineer, Mr A. Arthur was on bottl'd the Karroo throughout her war career, earning the D.S.O. ior the part he played in her gallant fights.