A VISIT TO THE FLEET.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 158, 24 March 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

A VISIT TO THE FLEET.

By GERARD FIENNES.

PEACE IN WAll: SECRET DEVICES.

Last tune I saw the squadrons and .flotillas of the British Navy it was oti an occasion destined to live in history, though then we knew it not. _ On i rainy, blowy July day, in the Year ol Grace 1914, the massed fleets of Britain steamed out from Spithead before their King. Great Dreadnought battleships, battie-cruisere, battleships of the older classes, light cruisers, destroyers, all swept by in one majestic pageant, while overhead the seaplanes swooped in salute to the Monarch. The fleet went to sea in peace. A week later L returned to its home ports, and thence in a few days it "vanished like a cloud in the silent summer heaven," to take up its positions for the blindfold game ■of war. What it has done since, tins 6afety of our inviolate shores and the sure arrival of our supply ships tell. Yesterday (January ] was privileged to see the fle,ct again after seventeen months of war. Well, come pot ■ tion of the fleet, for no man can in these days see even the ships of the lirst line all at once. They !ie scattered in squadrons, each at " a certain place" where she is and where she will be best placed to fN .it the throat of the Boche, if lie will g'vt her and l;er sisters half a chance. A\ hat part of the fleet I saw I may not reveal, nor where. Suffice it that t..ere were shjps of most kinds, and ships which have proved themselves mighty in battle. This was one of the occasions on which the Admiralty very wisely permits the humble journalist to supply to the public of our land, and of the allied and neutral States, something of an answer to the oft-repeated question, " What is the navy doing Therewere confreres of almost every friendly nation in the party, which left a certain terminus on a certa'n morning and journeyed to a certain place. We ■should go* afloat, we were told. Information which caused searching* jt heart, for the wind was high and tli.■sea promised to be "gurly." Nor did the performance belie promise. SMALL CRAFT OF THE FI.F-iT The great ships ef the fleet have been writte nabout already. It is not my purpose to add to the descr pt o:is which have been given to them. Rather bid me discourse of what the frcnch, with their eye for picturesque analogy, call "poussiere navale." Wheresoever the squadrons are. there are the small craft gathered together which protect them, and go forth to scrap, or try to scrap, with the Germans. W hen the harbour came into sight there were ships old and new, ships great and small, ships with guns, and others, not less necessary to the efficiency of the big sisters, without. There were colliers and oil-ships, trawlers and tugs, special ships built for special purposes, and old ships taken up and adaped as makeshifts. Ready, to one who has seen battleships and battle-cruisers many times, dressed over all for a royal review, or cleared, grim and stark, lor action, this '"poussiere navale" was the thing which attracted the eye. For this was "Andrew" at war, not playing at war, nor basking in the piping times of peace. But one thing had not changed. The naval officer and the bluejacket were the same. They were "fed up,' as usual. There was no mistaking the earnestness of their desire that the Boche would come out, and 110 mistaking the sincerity of their assurance that they had given him every chance There were men there who had been trailing their coat off his coasts a dav nr two before, in fiendish weather, ivith the green seas washing over them. But the Boche was not "taking any," mid hero they were back again, smilng, self-possessed, every inch the masters, despite the iterated disappointment of their hopes. At tight bells it was dinner-time, and the boatswain piped to dinner ns in peace. Because it was Friday afternoon, after dinner they holystoned the deck, as they have lone every Friday afternoon since they joined the service. But let a whisper :omo over those spider's webs which supply the picturesqueness of the runling rigging of the o'd Navy, and they viII slip away with as little fuss as they go to dinner or holystone their locks. To have peace in war is the lim of their commanders. Heroics are lot in the programme of the Navy. We wandered round, for it was not ,-et the destined time to go afloat, and ,ve saw things new and strange; concaptions of which the Germans have nade the acquaintance, or are des;ined to do so before long. Our tunjling ioss are plied with questions, which ;hev answer according to their wont, vith the apparent willingness to toil >verv secret of the Navy with the most perfect candour, and the greatest care o tell nothing wli'cli counts in ths .ma'lest degree. We walked over shp)ery planks and boarded sundry ships, ome with s'des which towered alo f * ind made the gang-plank steep as lacob's ladder, some with sides so low hat we merely stepped on board from he quay or the craft which brought is to tlif m. All the while it dwelt in j mind that these ships, engaged m he deadly game of war, looked much no re peaceful in their environment of and-lorked sea than that fleet which had 'a -t seen steaming past the sea orts for .1 week's playtime with un hotted fens. Your prizefighter ;?> ften av " peaceable looking man t,.l •nu see him in the ring. Youth 'ns everywhere, joyous, buoy nt youth There was not an old man 0 -•eii There wee commanderirhem i it w short years ago I liaJ mown as subs or midshipmen. They •ere the of which ill- skippers o! lie " poussiere navale" are made. But von admirals and captain- of Dreadouiiht.~> do not look old. though their ears may perchance be Udied by their ioks. Hot youth is the stuff which ndures in the stra'n of sen-warfare, lie worst of which is the waiting for n <■!!• iiiy who never i-ouie*. and who, !iev are beginning to fear, never wt.l ome. But now the mote;- boat- await u., - four stubby grey craft which -p u,v through the wafer at 20 k.iots. it i) knots be desired. V> e race awav r, so., what can be seen in the harboui. t is an epitome of the event.- ol_ the ~t ntw.i) months. Grey and I'an nd businesslike the slip- lie at their oorinrc the sky above is veen. with great lowering cloud-, tl. urhid water i- fleck-d with ion"., ■ cnuld reveal the name- of tin * 1,:,.], |, |V there, their name- woulu rincr he.ck memories verv gratifying , and higiilv d'sconifitmg tc .h<' loche But only one name may h,iven. and that is one to oniure with ,is that of 111 >Ai ef liu«a . forerunner r ,1-Tf r!a c " of light i riii-er. win. b. i Lt^.l^mnvun^'Wiu-hmVOwn.' 1 wh-'ch 1 e'onr f s nl.-o the I miming d, erome of th« f.glit "ill, Herman -orp.]„ ho-.t? off the Belgian cons,. ami o , orP uhirh me now m u , nv ~,,,,-e the enemy would g\ en.-> end to k" v. V'

The Arethusa is the faithful satellite of the '"Cat Squadron," Admiral Beatty's famous battle-cruisers which dashed into the Bight of Heligoland, and, later, sank the Bluecher, wita damage to two more powerful ships, off tlie Dogger Bank, very nearly a year ago Where the "'Cat Squadron'' goe.s, the Arethusa will he found. Sho led the way into the Bight. Siie engaged, single-handed, till help reached her, German ships of far greater power, whose identity could not he useertained in the fog, and, though badly damaged herself, took a fine toll of her enemy. She was tin're or thereabouts on the Dogger Bank also, and it was she who gave the "coup de grace" to the sinking Blucher, after wards picking up those who survived of her civiY. Site was at Cuxhaven, also, in the Christmas Day air raid. She is, if one may venture to put t so, always game for mischief. We raced alongside of her and din. Ed on to her steel decks. A keen-faced man with a commodore s stripes awaited us —Tyrwhitt. That name is wo \ enough known. He has been, on e ami again, in hot corners, and looks to be in another one or two yet. Therefore, he is the personification of coo How, one wonders, can such a !n i. huddled craft endure what the Arethusa has endured and continue to exist? You look again, and you see Hint there is not a thing on board her which does not make for efficiency in action. You must please take that on faith, for, of course, her gear cannot lie described. But there it is : everything makes for speed, for offence, or for defence. The only tiling her officers do not. apparently, think much of is her conning-towcr. ''That's where you are supposed to shut yourself up in action, says one. ou gather at once that, where* er ere they may be, her officers are not there. Conning-towers are necessary evils, no doubt; but, like ali evil, to be avoided -—if possible. We pass a'ong her mess-decks to her cngineroom—a veritable case of ''mul-

turn in parvo"—and Ave reach at last what the "old man"—he may be 30—is most evidently nxious to show us. In Their ward-room are "souvenirs" — memorials of the Blucber. Two little German flags, badly smoko-begnmed, sucli as sailor.* use tor hand signalling, and one hoot which belonged to tho gunnery lieutenant of the German cruiser. He had time to get the other off and left it behind him. This passed to the Arethusa's ward-room as "booty," and now hangs on the wall. a treasured possession. Lest the German Government should quote the fact ns an ''eternal shame" to the British Navy, I hasten to eay that the bootless one was given a whole pair, which must have been much more comfortable tor him, though, judging by the cut of that which he abandoned, lie may have been a bit colder about the ankles. Anether cherished relic is a H'ndenburg medal, bestowed by the grateful captain of a German trawler, picked up "somewhere" in the North Sea. This worthy seems to have differed from him who "never changed the coin and gift of Bonaparty." "CERTAINLY." Then our time was up. We boarded our motor bonts once more and grunted away with, hissing wake, the cleanshaven faces on the Arethusa's deck smiling farewell good luck to them wheresoever they go! A sick'e moon was 'n the skv. and the evening r.tar below her. The sun was setting red and angry in the clouds. But there was more sign of storm and stress r.i the sky than in that peaceful harbour where men were waiting the enemy's pleasure to come out and be ";-trafed " They are certain of themselves, these sailors of ours; certain of themselves, and certain of the weapons that have Icon plnced in their hands. We have no light— >xp should indeed, be fools —to charge the navy of our enemy with want of spirit. Doubtless it obeys orders, and doubtless, also, these orders are the fruit of a sound judgment. But it is a fact that when a German squadron show-, its nose outside the "wot. triangV it is always preceded by i;rcraft, and that when the aircraft catch -ight of a British cru'sor. small or hu. the Khips present the least dignified portion of their construction an 1 h ; c then: back to port. And our nice t'rnk tiiat constant repetition of tnis rerf'imnnc" n u<t have blunted U\? edge of the Booh/* fighting apnetitv by now It has but whetted tlu-ir o-vn. -The "Standard." (Since th's articl" was writt.v, in England, readers will recall that the Arothusa had the misfortune to strike a niin.> on the East coast of England. and sank, with the los* of onlv - a mm.—Ed.)