"DAREDEVIL NORTON,"

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 129, 7 January 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

"DAREDEVIL NORTON,"

A BRIGHT AND BREEZY ARTICLE ABOUT THE YOUNG MAN WHO SANK THE POMMERN. So far as the Navy is concerned, those who are covering themselves with undying glory in this 1 war are, for the most part, young men. Admirals', Yice-Admirals, and RearAdmirals have the tank of waiting and watching and planning, but it is the youngsters who have done the daring deeds that win fame.

Warneford, V. C, won never-dying glory by sending a Zeppelin to destruction practically single-handed. Younj; Holbrook took his submarine through the minefields of the Dardanelles, and w:th brilliant daring, sank an enemv battles]'.!?. Fox revenged himself for the sinking of the Amphion of which he was in command by sending four German des. troyers to the bottom, and then laeoni cally wiring the Admiraltv: "Sunt the let."

And now comes Commander Max Horton, R.N.. to add another to the list of names of Britain's brilliant youngsters. It was Irs submarine which successfully torpedoed the German Battleship Pommern, in the Baltic. SOMETHING LIKE A PRIZE! The Pommern was something like a prize. She was ont of the ten really effective pre-Dreadnoughts under the German flag. Her displacement was 13,200 tons, and her officers and men numbered 743.

This is not the first great deed Horton has wrought during the war. tie was sent out with his submarine, the E9, to examine the outer anchorage of Heligoland. The task was a risky one. On the way he came across the German light cruiser Hela. Promptly he sent her to the bottom. Then he coolly carried out the work he had been tent,to do.

Early in October he was at it again. Off the mouth of the Ems he sighted two German destroyers. Reckless daredevil that he i-. he yet proved himself every inch a seaman. He manoeuvred deftly, torpedoed and sank tne German destroyer SI 16 off Borkum, evaded the hot pursuit of the surviving destroyer, and returned merrily to his base ilyng the skull and crossboncs flag, a serio-comic emblem our submarines use to commemorate happy meetings with the Hun-. For this they gave bun promotion, from Lieu-tenant-Commander to Commander, and the D.S.O.

Hort.m will not be satisfied with -inking, as he has done, a battleship. a cruiser, and a destroyer. If the Geimans get to Riga they will probably find him there, too. Once the E9 was chased by German destroyers. Horton and his crew had to spend fully ten hours submerged before they coid e-eape. When the Delhi ran on the rocks at Cape Spartel in 1911 with the Princess Royal and the late Duke of Fife on board, Horton was a lieutenant m the Duke of Edinburgh. For gallantry in saving life at sea on that occasion the King presented him and seven others with the Board of Trade silver medal.