"LITTLE TRAWLER."

Matamata Record, Volume II, Issue 84, 30 May 1918, Page 1

"LITTLE TRAWLER."

The Bravery of the North Sea Fishermen^ " Little trawler, little trawler, Ah, so black against the sic;/, With your sides all torn and battered And your flag but half-mast high, Did your voyage fail to prosper ? " Cried the little trawler, No; We. went out and did our duly, But the shipper lies below.' I '' " Little, trawler, little, trawler, With the quaint old English name, Diil the little ships before you Ever join in such a game?" " Well I've heard my mother tell me," Said the, trawler, " long ago, That Lord Howard had to use 'e»i Just as much as Jellicoe." ■ * The following is the experience of two fishing smacks. "When in a position about seventeen milos southeast from S two German submarines were sighted. They both approached the smacks on the surface. One of them came to within three hundred yards of the the vessel to come closer to him, at the same time firing with a machine gun, the smack being hit many times, but with no casualties. This smack then threw out her small boat to abandon ship. In the meantime the submarine had submerged and come up again, within a hundred yards of the smack. One of the German officers came out of the conning tower and hailed the skipper, telling him to leave the smack, as he intended to torpedo it.

" The skipper then ordered fire to be opened on the submarine. The first round of the smack's gun missed, but the third shot hit the hull of the submarine just forward of the conning tower and burst, persumably inside. The submarine immediately disappeared and it would appear almost certain that she was destroyed. " The second submarine, showing only her periscope, had gone to the eastward of one of the other smacks. This second submarine cruised round with her periscope above water while the smack kept steering a course to bring the periscope ahead whenever ft could be seen. The submarine finally submerged about a half dozen times, finally being sighted on the starboard bow, about two hundred yards distant, emerging from the water so that at last the whole of her upper deck and the conning tower could be seen.

" The skipper put the helm hard over so as to bring the submarine on the smack's broadside. A round was then fired from the smack's gun, which hit the base of the conning tower and exploded, blowing pieces of the submarine into the water on all sides. At this moment, or within a few seconds after, a torpedo passed under the stern of the i smack, missing her by about six | to ten feet, afterward coming to I the surface and running some : considerable distance along the top of the water before it finally sank." "On being struck by the shell the submarine took a slight list to starboard and plunged down,; bows first, disappearing so quick-' ly that there was no time for a second shot at her. The last seen of her was the after part of the upper deck. The smack which had engaged her started for the spot and large bubbles were seen coming up from the bottom and an increasing smear of oil." Excellent shooting by the crews of these smacks, and a singular lack of discretion on the part of the submarine commanders! For a series of nautical complications, please consider what befell two steam trawlers in a part of the North Sea where the merchant vessels go their appointed ways and doggedly run the risk of being torpedoed. One of these cargo steamers had been blown up by a submarine and was sinking by the head. Her plight was descried by another small fighter, which quixotically bore down to rescue the crew instead of bearing off at full speed to save her own skin. Alas for her good intentions ! The U-boat let go another torpedo and hereby bagged the second ahip.

Meanwhile Trawler Number One had seen what was going on, and her skipper decided to take a hand in the shindy. Jamming ahead for all he was worth, he caught the submarine unawares while it was firing the torpedo at the second steamer. The trawler's bow drove straight at the conning tower and rammed it hard and So violent was the collision that the plucky trawler's stem was twisted to one side, at which she backed up, surged ahead again, and released a depth charge where the submarine had frantically sought cover under water. Trawler Number Two now came hustling up, and between them they dropped more packages of explosives until they were satisfied that the submarine, after being rammed and blown up, would trouble them no more. There remained the two sinking steamers and their crews' to be picked up, by way of making it a busy afternoon. When Trawler Number One was put in dry dock it was found that her bottom was scarred along its whole length, to show where she had stamped the submarine under.