NORTH SEA FIGHT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 197, 4 August 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

NORTH SEA FIGHT.

FURTHER DETAILS. HOW THE ACTION OPENED. GALATEA SIGHTS ENEMY. HEROES OF THE SHARK. THRILLING TALE OF RESCUE. In addition to the comprehensive accounts received by cable of ihe ,r reat naval battle in the North Sea. yesterday's mail contained details of ma.iv stirring incidents during the great (iglit. A brief reference was made bv Sir John Jellicoe, in his despatch, to the fact that the cruiser Galatea fired the first shct. Her experiences make a thrilling story. It appears that the commander of the Galatea saw a torpedo-boat in the distance, apparently interrogating a steamer. He took up his glasses. Iho next moment the crew heard the electrifying shout: "By iove, that is a German torped<boat. her have it, boys." The guns were promptly laid, and thev let her have it. The torpe.li-bo.it raced off, with the Galatea in hot pursuit. until our cruiser had been drawn within range of the main On man fleet. Then things began to '>e lively. Hae.. went a wireless to the admiral, win raced up with the battle-cruisers. The Galatea was in the thbk of the me'ee that followed, and seemed to bear a charmed existence. The Phaeton saw a torpedo speeding towards the cruiser and yelled out the warning: "See that torpedo!" But milling could be done. Ihs Galatea Hid not time to change her course to avo.i Uie deadly peril. Her wireless operator relates that be took out an envelope, scribbled upon it his name and the name of his nearest kin, and slipped it back into his pocket It seemed that the end had come. Tin torpedo was only 40 yards away, t.io sinister wak e streaming behind in ;; 'ong straight line. Suddenly, for sonne tmexpdieabl.! reason, the torpedo dived and jassol harmlessly under the ship.

THE ONLY WOMEN* NEAR THE FIGHT. The gallant fight of the little destroyer Shark is now famous. The ship went down fighting gamely, her brave commander working his last gun in spite of a shattered log. Several survivor? I'iom the Shark owe their lives large!v to Captain Christiansen, of the Danish steamer Vidar, who came upon a pari of the scene of action after the ilosa of the battie, and, despite th-2 danger of floating nines, set hinise.f to the work of rescue. The brave fellows are -til! more indebted to the devotion of a Danish and a Norwegian nurse, who fortunately, happened to be oil the ship, travelling back to England after a holiday in their own land. When rescued from the icy water the six men were in a semi-conscious and. in more than one case, half-demented condition, and two were on the point of collapse from cold and loss of blood. A seventh man died, despite all efforts 'lho nurses —believed to be the only women who saw anything of the great light—gave the following very simple acocunt of their experiences, in which they described the appalling sights which met their eyes after the great struggle:— "We left Copenhagen about 10.30 p.m. on Tuesday night. At three ■>' rock in the morning the Vidar was stopped by a German submarine, the commander of which came aboard and demanded the ship's papers.

WRECKED GERMAN BATTLESHIP

"About that time also," continued ona of the ladies, "1 thought I heard the sound of distant guns. Just about nino o'clock wo sighted a great black object in the sea. It looked at first rather like a sail lying on the water. Wo discovered that it was a wrecked German battleship. On the upturned side 'metres' were marked instead of •feet,' as in tiie case of Br;ti>h ships Very soon afterwards our attention v.as directed to a great ship on fire. At first it seemed rather like a three or four masted sailing ship, but as tl-.e captain of the Yidar steered towards it with a view to rendering help, it became plajn that it must be a battle-

ship. "JiiKt at this time wo noticed a l.ght on the lace of the darkening sea. It was like a torch being waved about Then peering over the sides of the Yidar into the foam-lit blackness nne'» eyes suddenly began to realise the terrible fact that the sea was full of floating bodies. There were dozens of them. It may ho that, there were hundred-. They could not ">e counted. CLINGING TO A BUOY. "Among the flotsam and jetsam, human and material, were live men clinging to a gigantic buoy. ]t not only seemed, but was. a gigantic buoy, probably 30ft. or 50ft. in circumference. and largo enough for men to sit on its rim. One man was faintly lapp:ng the water with his hand and Throwing the spray upon a patent lifesignal device aflixed to the buoy, which, 1 believe, only burn., so long as it ;s 'fed' or 'struck' by water. It was just the action of an automaton, and nothing more, so lifeless was he. The other poor fellows appeared to be cataleptic almost, but from either the man mechanically lapping the water or from one of the others we could hear a iaitit and plaintive cry. Giadua'lv we distinguished its words. It was 'We are ali\e'.' 'Vi'e are alive!' They wei • alive m that sea of dead! It would be difficult to tell you what a thrill those words gave. And the pang!

" Captain Christiansen instantly set about a rescue. As they got beneath us a ladder was let dawn. They made no effort to reach it, and it was p!a:n lliar. tliev were too ill to do so. One man only was able i*> make signs. 'lhe others reniiVn.d practiea'l.v motionless. One by oiie. with great, difficulty, thev !iad to be carried up the gangway and laid upon the saloon floor. A KAIf.Oir.S A( COI NT. '• When \\Y took of!' the;;- 'lothes we found that three of tin men were wounded and bleeding. The first officer's boat brought two more survivors, making r-even. I'lihappily, one died despite all uf <ould do for him, and wo rather feared that we should lose one if not two of the others. Hut they pulled round. When morning came our chr.rg.es were happily very much better. I i-annot say the..' had much to tell us. Fighting men and sailors always v'om to be like that. As a matter of fact, they probably didn't sec much of the great fight, except that bit of it in which thoy were engaged. !>ecairo of the smoke of the guns. Anviin.v. the best account given us was tills : •' The first shell to hit us struck one i.f our scrnvs. and w ; > kept going round and round. Our fellows kept on firing the gulls untii all but one was hit by 'he enemy gulls and put out of action. Our chaps were killed. The < ommnnder !•:.-! his leg shattered by a shell, hut v.hen he saw th" le.-t ;;unner fall he unbilled over to the gun and continued to Pre 'I himself. Then we cot one in our o'l tank. That did it. The poor

old Shark was swamped in oil, and as fcho didn't like the juice slm just went under. I found myself in the water with a number of other fellows. Many wero wounded and soon went underAbout 30 of us climbed on to the buoy you found us on, but one bv one they just dropped off, until there were only five of us left." WARRIOR S LAST FIGHT. IN THICK OF STRUGGLE. WORK OF THE GUNNERS. AN OFFICER S NARRATIVE. A most interesting story is told by a gunnery officer of the Warrior, one of the armoured cruisers which preceded the Grand Fleet jnto action. He says : "On Wednesday, when we had been steaming for six hours, the sound of gun-firing was heard, and the flashes of the guns were observable about ten minutes later. Both squadrons were evidently approaching each other at the rate of 20 knots. At 5.50 p.m.. 'action quarters' was sounded. At 5.55 the following order came down from the fire control of the forward turret: 'Enemy cruiser, three fcnne's, bearing green 90. Range 15.850 yards ; deflection 10 left. Salvos control.' "Twenty seconds later the. gong rang, and a fraction of a second had not elapsed before a double gong sounded for range-finding. The first two shells having given us the range, tli.e starboard gun of the fore turret thundered out, the shell crumpling up the hindermost of the three funnels of the enemy. A 'direct' bit was then signalled, when suddenly two more light cruisers were signalled to port, and the Defence and and Duke of Edinburgh were 'eft to deal with them. The latter vessel had to intercept a mine-layer that had made its appearance.

GOOD SHOOTING. "All at once a huge fountain of water rose 20 yards ahead of us, and we then knew that we had to deal with something bigger than a light cruiser. Two shells of at least, 12in. calibre feli ahead of the Defence, and three seconds later a salvo cut her amidshps and she crumpled up and sank. The Black Prince was next to go. Two great shells caried away her funne's and foreturret, and a second salvo hit her in the magazjne, and she blew up. Our turn had come, for far away on the horizon we could see three tripod masts. By now the enemy light cruisers were burning fiercely, and had ceased to fire, but one after another 12in. shells dropped on either beam of us. At last the enemy, out of ran go by three miles, found their mark. Th? first shell hit the starboard side in line with the turrets. The third hit the quarter-deck -ust abaft the bulkhead door, ploughing downwards and wrecking the dynamos and putting the who'e ship in darkne-s. The gun turrents, also, were almost as the ammunition hoist had gone. Another shot put the port and starboard engine-rooms out of action, kill'ng 20 men.

WARSPITE TO THE ItESCUE. " After five minutes the vessel was on fire, and a number of men were out oi action from the effects of asphyxiating gas shell' l , which the enemy were'now us:ng. At 0.30 we were a hopelessly battered hulk, and waiting tor the rihel'ii that would fin'sh us, when the Warspito passed between us, and engaged the iorcmost enemy battle-cruiser with deadly effect. '1 lie first shot from the AYarspite lopped off the foremast of the leading enemy battle-crui-se:-. The next overturned bath the fore-gun turrets and in five minutes the enemy vessel was ab-o'utely ablaze from end to end, enveloped in a cloud of d'.ns.' smoke. The seeond battle-crui-ser, which had been concentrating her fire 011 the Vwirspite, turned to starboard, smoke belching from lar funnels, and endeavoured to pick up their main squadron. But it was not to be. Two shells from the Warspitc blew every funnel she had got to pieces. A third shot made a great rent in her stern; a fourth ploughed up her deck and burst against the foremast, bringing it down. Two minutes later this ship a'so was on fire, with the Warspite ,-till pound ng her and ripping great gashes in her starboard side and bottom. The la-t we saw of her was nothing more than a broken hulk. Slowly the Egadine, which was a nydrop'ane parent-sh'p, towed us towards port, passing tiie Crescent, which had all the survive,rs from the Queen Mary, tho Inv'ncib'.e, the Ardent and the Fortune on board. For tin hours we were towed, and it was not until live o'clock tho next morning, when our quarterdecks were awash, that we had to abandon the old Warrior."

IX A RAIN OF SHELLS. THE ACASTA'S PART. SAVED IX THE XICK OF TIME. Ti\> Acasta, one of the British destroy* rs which the G rmans claimed to have nuuk, came in under low of another de.-troyer. and assisted by tinve tugs and her arrival in ti:e falling durknos;, wan an impressive picture. There was enough liglit left to show tlie scars of action and the hali'-nia.sted pennon, indiiating that she was bringing home hi r dead—>ix of them —from the great encounter on the other si ,e of the Xorth Sea. One of tlie Acasta's-rrew told the story of her part in the light. She formed }»;;r t of a flotilla that steamed into the Skager Rack on the Wednesday afternoon. The duty of these vessels was to draw out the enemy, and they v.. re soon in the thick of a running light, which rapidly developed. " I nevtr thought," said the sailor, "that the German* had so many ships in one fleet. It was a fair ding-dong fight- with the guns, only the Brit'sli ships were almost hopeles-ly outnumbered. "It rained shells. They fell thickly round the Acasta. but the big gun shooting was rotten. Had the conditions been reversed, with Br-tish ships battering German destroyers, the destroyers would have been scrap iion in ten in in ut's. Y\e had been in the fight about forty minutes when a slinll smashed into the enuine-rooni and through the -teres, killing five of our men. This shell did for i s, the Acasta being alnv-st helpless owing to the damage. S!iel!s i.ti!! came from all quarters, and wo thouglif we should soon be sent t.-i the bolt I I'll. It was ;i i;im> of lie wi ole German fi< et again.st four cruisers and half a doz-. n drsti overs.

"Tiirn nut of tin.' nnst we saw oth -t hig battleships conic rushing into the light. Wc thought at fn\-t tlicy were (iernians, and that irall up. But they were our ir.vn battle-hip*. anil a great -ighf tli, v nia !c as they came pounding along, h'azing away with the I Vin.'h gun-;. "T!i.« nii'ii oa the hailing ship gave lis a cheer a- si'.-e p:;--ed. They mhv we were disabled. Our liattlesliips made i-plciidid shooting. We >-a\v one of them h ! cwing tno (li'inan cnr>o!s to hits with a lew ui'!!-d:i("-!''d i-h■ • i's from her hig gun-. One of t!io German vessels s nied to lie alino-t lifted out of the water, and the other was thrown

on her beam-end*. In aboutminutes the battle passed away r^H A VERY HOT DAY." FIFTY HOURS ON DUTY. The crews of every vessel had their thriving experiences. The ordeal of the men on the Southampton was commemorated by one of them upon a couple of ship s biscuits. They bear the ius ription._ neatly written in ink—"H.M.S Southampton, Wednesday May 31—A very hot- day." An officer who had fifty hours' continuous dutw upon one ship before, during, and after the engagement, kept himself going on biscuits like these d-sposing of about a hundred. An engineer officer. ;; Scotsman ex-prewst-d himself similarly to the men or the Southampton, bit with more nat|vo caution: "A yerra fairly warm 'line, he said, in answer to questions,, when he got ashore.'