THE STORY OF A FAMOUS SHIP.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 158, 24 March 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE STORY OF A FAMOUS SHIP.

"THE SAUCY ARETHUSA," IMMORTALISED BY DIBDIN. (From "Th • World's News.") "Come all ye jolly sailors bold, Whose hearts are cast in honour's mould, While English glory I unfold, H'i ia for the Arethusa." --Charles Dibdia. At" cabled aiionucemont of the loss j of a British fighting ship at the present j < lit:. i time must necessarily be read ' with heartfelt regret by the millions I who sympathise with the Allies in their | uphill struggle against the devil and all his works. And in the case of the Arethusa, the loss of which ship was recently reported, the feeling will be ! accentuated by a knowledge of the circumstances under which it occurred. i To have been sent to the bottom in a j a fair sea tight, with her crew still I at quarters, and iier flag waving deI fiance from the masthead, had as that would have been, the glory of such an I ending would have proved a source of national gratification in place of the sorrow which mu-t be felt for her loss through the sneaking contrivance of r, drifting German mine. The one comforting reflection in connection lwth fort'.ng reflection in connection with that, however, is that she will eventually bo replaced by one or other of the eap-ured German ships now lying doggo, i mlcr the command of th, very gall i t Admiral Tirpitz, behind the foil and minefields of K'el and Heligoland. Which possibility serves a< a reminder that the first Arethusa known to the British Navy List was a capture irom our ancient toes, and present brave and honourable Allies, the French. .'.he was a line 32-guii frigate, and was captured by the brigs Venus and Thames. alter a'.-lilt figlit off the French coast in li. V.i, and, being a v, ry line vessel of her c'a-s, was added to the British Navy under hei own name. Shortly before that happened, however, a good story was told of an old English man-of-war's man, who occasionally acted as an Isle of Wight pilot, but was just then deta ned at Cherbourg in connection with some not too clearly defined smuggling transaction. The Arethusa, then under the French flag, .-ailed into tho harbour, and, in a perfectly polite though .-lightly supercilious manner, a bystandei asked "if the English had got as line a frigate as that in their service:" To which Jack promptly replied :-- "Well, as to that I can't go for to -ay, but 1 know that if there corned another war we precious soon would have one. You might say as it wouldn't be many weeks afore we'd have she." audience laughed ooistcroiish, but the re-ult showed that Jack wore the im.ntle of a prophet. 'flu- pence which was concluded with France in 17G2 prevented the newly acquired Arethusa from adding to her leputation under the Rrit'sb Hag until iTr>, when hostilities were reopened and she was commissioned for active service under the pennant, after an inglorious rest of several years in th.' muddy watern of Porchester Creek. Comanded by Captain .Marshall, and attached to th ( . fleet under Admiral Keppcl, -he ,-oon acquired notoriety by her attack on the French 10-gun | Ingate, Belle Poule, which succeeded J in making her escape in a disabled conj dition, leaving the Arethusa so badly knocked about that she had to be towed back to the fleet. In the following year she was commissioned by Captain Evoritt as a Channel cruiser, and eventually went to pieces on a reef when in pursuit of another Frenchman, off Brest. That was the end of Dibdiu's "Saucy Arethusa," but the prefix has stuck to her successors in the service from that clay to tlm present The next Arethusa claiming not'ee in the records was the 50-gun frigttc of that name, commanded bv Captain Mends, in the Black Sea fleet, under Sir Edmund Lyons, in ISO 4, and she ! worthily maintained the reputation of | her predecessor, during the attack o i j Odessa and the subsequent bomiiardi ment of Sebastopol. The severity .:! ! the action against the granite forts of | the last-named stronghold disabled sev- ! oral siiips of the combined fleets of : Brita'n and France, the Arethusa ] amongst the number- so much dam- ' aged that she had to lie sent under ; convoy to .Malta for repairs. 1 What happened to her after that is not readily traceable at this distance. ; but if not utilised for harbour service, ! she was probably broken up or sold. The name-, however, was not ckstin.ed I to be forgotten, and very shortly after j being commissioned, the new- and latest , Arethu-a was in the thick of the nght j oil' Heligoland, in August. 1014, when ! a section of the German fleet sneaked out from behind their fortifications, in the hope of escaping from their enforced detention, and committing further cowardly crimes of piracy on tne high ,-eas, or murder of women and children on unprotected spots on the British coast. That they were terribly disappointed is now a story of the past. The Arethusa, leading a flotilla of destroyers, was soon among them, and played a leading part in the destruction oi some of their c: a-k cruisers and destroyeis, wh Ist others tied ignominiously for shelter to the haven whence they came. The little Arethu-a was towed back to her home port after the action, but so badiy damaged that considerable repaiis were necessary before she- was again in lighting trim, since whjch time she has been engaged in the performance of those arduous duties for which the Admiralty considered her best adapted. Her ending - if such it proves to be as the result of contact with a German mine completes the lighting record of the three Arethusas, which help- to an understanding of the popularity of the name in the sea service of Great Britain, and it can readily be believed that no great length of time will be allowed to pass hel. r.. it aga'n appears in the Navv Li-.!.