WAR EPISODES AT SEA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19472, 6 May 1925, Page 11

WAR EPISODES AT SEA.

MERCHANT SAILORS AND GERMANY. In his first volume of “Our Merchant Navy and the War,” Mr Archibald Hurd told the story that our mercantile marine had played in the war from 1914 to 1915. The last incident recorded Was the tragic sinking of the Cunard liner Lusitania off the Irish coast with the loss of over 1200 lives. In the second volume the history is continued to February 1, 1917, the date of ihq declaration by the Central Poweic of unrestricted submarine warfare. It was this declaration, it may bo recalled, that brought the United States into the war. A notable feat recorded in the second volume is the rescue of the Anglo-Cali-fornian, a cargo steamer of 7333 tons. In July. 1917, she had left Montreal for Queenstown with a cargo of horses. All went well until she was 90 miles off Queenstown. Here she was sighted by an enemy nunmarine, and eventually she wos overhauled. And what an easy prey slio looked; but unfortunately for the plans of the enemy, at that critical moment the armed steamer Ena appeared on the scene and opened fire at 9000 yards. Meanwhile the boats of the Aiiglo’Californimi, with the firemen already seated in them, had been swung outboard. With the advent of the Ena the captain of tho submarine signalled this curious order; “Hold on u minute.” But with the Ena in sight. Parslow, tho gadant captain of tho Anglo-Californian, had instantly come to quite another decision than that of abandoning ship. Ho now gave his firemen tho word to go below again, for hero was the chance to save his ship, ns ho (old them. The men imnpod aboard greatly elated. All thought that the submarine, with the Ena closing m upon her fust, would.boat a retreat; but instead of doing so she opened fire at close range. The bridge of the AngloCalifornian was blown away, and Captain Parslow ami 20 of the officers and crew were killed. Tho chief engineer, now in command, regarding tho case as hopeless, for the second time gave orders to amindon ship. But again at the critical moment tho fates inlervenod. The destroyers»Mirandn and Mentor, appearing ns if by magic, came tearing along to the rescue. Things were now getting altogether 100 hot for the submarine. She suddenly dived, and not another .ql lm P s,, of hor was seen. Tho Anglo-Californian then proceeded under escort to Queenstown without further adventure. All on hoard had behaved magnificently, so that the principal actors were mentioned in despatches. Mr Hurd regards tho affair, indeed. as one of tho epics of tho war. But a much more famous event was that in which Captain Fryatt, in command of the cross-Channel steamer Brussels, played such an heroic part. This recalls what we would all rather forgot, for it shows (he Germans in their . worst spirit. Cam tain Fryatt’s only crime wtis that ho hail resisted capture. Being attacked without warning by submarine U 55 ho had, in selfdefence, attempted to run under her stern. Ho was but carrying out the orders of the Admiralty, for the instructions to commanders of merchant vessels were that, when attacked, thov were to endeavour to save their ships. But the ’Kerman Court of Inquiry, holding him to be a mere “franc-tireur”, of tho sea, condemned him to death. To return to the between tho Brussels and tho U 33. \Viien Captain Fryatt attempted the movement described, tho submarine countered by crossing tho bows of the Brussels. Captain Fryatt, who had good reason to believe that whatever ho did, or refrained from doing, it was the enemy’s intention to torpedo him, took his fate in both hands, for, after putting his helm hard a’starboard, he drove straight for her. By diving she escaped being rammed.. Next year this brave man, who was still in qommand of the Brussels, won one night surrounded by a cordon of destroyers and captured. Of escaping ho had not oven a shadow of a chance. Condemned in advance for his contumacy in resisting the U 33 the year before, his trial was a farce. His defence was brushed contemptuously aside, and the sentence was that ho was lo bo shot that night. He met death as such a man might bo expected to meet it: ,ior could all tho insults to which he was subjected during his lust hours break down his iron composure. One more incident may be selected from a volume which makes inspiring reading from cover to cover. This it not without its clement of tragedy either, though it ended in pure farce. Tho commander of submarine UC32 from afar off had sighted a little fleet of trawlers in the North Sea. After submerging, he presently came to the surface right in their midst. He banged away at thpm light-heartedly, captured several, sank several, and did much slaughter. A hawk in a fowlyard would not have deemed itself safer; After a while he despatched Warrant-officer Haack in a boat of one of the captured trawlers with orders to sink the trawler Mayfly, then distant about two miles. With, a bug of bombs, a bandolier of cartridges, and a heavy service revolver, Haack got under way. Haack was in groat spirits—until the Speedwell, an armed trawler, steamed to the assistance of her harass"! sisters. She at once hotly engaged UC32. To the groat disgust, and even greater coo stornatfon of Haack, UC32, instead of fighting, dived out of sight, and scuttled away. Haack, master of tho situation :/ut a moment before, now found himself in truly sorry plight. For was he not surrounded by unarmed trawlers, and also w„s he not in range of the armed Speed-won? Wo may be sure that neither his ban Llier of cartridges nor his heavy service revolver, nor his hag of bombs, brought him a single crumb of comfort. An unfor. innate situation, however, did not deprive him of his native stock of impudence. Bidding his crow row him to an unarmed trawler nearby, he commanded the skipper of that craft to carry him to a Scandinavian steamer which had just hove in sight. The skipper laughed in his luce, and next moment ITaack found himself a prisoner. Tho tables had been trgmd upon him with a vengeance! But if he had been made to look incomparably ridiculous Ins luck was better than he knew at the time, for only a month later UC32 was destroyed, and all her officers and crew perished with her.