A NAVAL EPISODE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 223, 3 November 1916, Page 8 (Supplement)

A NAVAL EPISODE.

THRILLING WORK IN A FOG OF* THE GERMAN COAST.

The salving o£ a British destroyer, which missed tho wireless signal t'> change course and crashed into one j! our own destroyers, is graphically described in tho " Cornhill Magazine'' tor August. *'lf ono sh'ps misses the signal and holds steadily on tier course whilst her consorts ahead and astern and on each sido of her turn at right" angles, what is going top rovent a collision? 'Joss,' and 'joss' in large quantities, is the onlv preventative 1 can cite, and this was iho very clement that was absent that day. " Ono of tho rear destroyers was tho 'lucky party' who missed t'le signal—tho first alter course signal by wireless —and she continued on lor course, whilst those ahead and outude her altered across her bows. v "Tho aforesaid 'joss' might have caused her to cross tho line through i> gap, but instead there suddenly loomed right ahead of her, out ol the dense pall of fog, the blurred silhouette of a light cruser, and before even the engines could he reversed or the helm put over she had crashed bows on at twenty knots into the beam of th > cruiser. "Tho comparatively fra>l hows of the destroyer crumpled under t'ie blow like so much brown paper, and tho boat recoiled with fifteen feet of h?r bow 'con-ccrtina-ed' in. "Yet never a soul on hoard of her was hurt. 'Joss' certainly made up leeway there, but in the-bigger vessel such was not the case . The in pact of the blow had lifted a torpedo tube off iti mountng and had thrown ' inboard against tho casings, crushing five unfortunate men. of whom three lost their livea.

In add t'.on the hull of the ship had suffered considerahfo damage, so that her speed was reduced to a bare ten knots, whilst the destroyer, at first able to steam six knots, could make no headway at all. "And all this, mark you, within thirty miles of the German coast in a 'peasoup' fog, so that no sooner had the two ships collided and fallen apart thai they were lost to sight of each other and of the remainder of the fleet, whej continued their groping course seaward, the majority unaware that aught was amiss.

BIG RISKS. "One destroyer, however, had noted tho accident, and altering out from hoi station stood by her damaged consjrt and forthwith made preparations to take her in tow; for if one thing was more evident than another, it was tlu« desirability of getting the damaged ships away to seaward before the foj; should lift leaving them to bo discovered by some inquisitive' Hun submarine or aircraft patrol. "A wireless signal—it had to be. done —was sent as soon as possible,to the flagship from the damaged cruiser, and the squadron turned back on their tra?k to try to locate and assist the damage! craft-" Thirty hours after the col!«ion, tlu* fog having lifted, the " lame cluck" « sighted. The damaged craft presents a weird spectacle. "Her crumpled bows, unable to stand tho strain of the ship's motion any longer, had fallen into the sea to thac from another ship one could look right into her and see her store-rooms an 1 other compartments, whilst the muzzle of her foremost gun, at ordinary times twenty feet or so back from her hows, now protruded over the 'front' of tho ship like a tree outgrowing fiom a clifr. '"The men's living space; right forward had retired to the bottom of t!i" North Sea, and the waves wire rolling in, unhindered, against the capstan engine, anchor chain lockers, and for. most moss decks. Vet the sh'p was still .'■eawcrthy, lor a transverse bulkhenil, which stretches across the slip and ruts from the foc'slc deck right, down t / the keel, was keeping her watertight and preventing other compartments From being flooded—no small advertisement for the efficient work of our Corps of Naval Constructors.

"Hie large area of this bulkhead, however made it impossible to tow thi ship bows first, for the pressure again?;; it under such conditions would be tremendous and too much even for tin efficiency of her construction

"The only alternative, therefore, wa> to tow her stern first. We knew this would be a fauly dimcult operation, to.* she had already been twice in tow of the destroyer that had originally stood by her, and each tune the strain of the tow had p&rtrvt tho wire*. "It was after an hour and a half's work, by about 3 p.m., that we managed to get our wires into her, for ; t ib no easy task in a seaway when one cannot have a boat, but must steam past as close to the other ship as safety will permit, towing astern of you a small hawser with a cask at the ems, which the ship to oe towed endeavours to pick up. "Then if she gets it you attach ' the small hawser a large hemp hawser, and to that the b ; g \\ ire by which yon will tow, one end or which she hauls ill and makes fast to horsvlf, whilst you have the other end secured to your stern, and off you go. At least so you should in theory, but in this case W2 had secured the wire but two or three minutes when a wave lifted 11 up in an opposite direction, throwing a heavy strain on tho wire which forthwith parted; so wo had to start aga'n.

PATIENCE AND PERSISTENCE.

"This tnno we used the very largest wire wo had, which was correspondingly more difficult to handle and harder to get to the destroyer, and not untd 6 p.m., just as the light started to fail, were we able to get it to the destroyer And all this tune, you must remember, wo made a sitting target tor a submarine.

"The remainder of the squadron worn ■steaming round and round us acting ;-.« far as they could as a submarine Rorcoii, nnd individually, I don't doubt, cursing us heartily for the length o! time wo were taking. Hut no enemy craft found us (such opportunities will be missed by fleets .wlrcTi operate 'i canals), and as twilight settled in wt< steamed slowly ahead, with rising hopes that this time the tow might hold and that we myht sucicccl in getting her "*• "Steaming at r.'volulions ordinarily sufficient tu give us eight knots we made good four to live. "The sea was gradually getting up :<t| the tune, and tlie destroyer was tow. •ng erahwisr through the water, not dead astern of u- -o as ti'rgivo a straight haul, hut on! mi our quarter which put variable strains and jerks on her an i on (lie wire: more espeei'i'iy on the latter at the 'ir'p' Hint part where the wire led > : nto the two -hip* and whe •* iho hend due to h r not being do i 1 astern of us. c mie in.

'• The v. mil (no. v, as mi cur beam, and the seas rolling on swept the de ►.'trover's stern away In m us. eau-i'' r our wire, a second la'er, to bring -i hack with a sudden jerk. St-',I for half an hour or so all went wed and Hi * remainder of the .squadron closed

around us, zigzagging to and fro, as we all shaped course Jor ho'iife. ".But fate, as you will guess, had :io intention ot giving up tlte game so easily, and at b\4o p.m. our wire broivj at tlio 'nip.' The 'i-toki-you-soV Vere :n evidence.

STILL TRYING. " We had now no other wire strong enough to tow by, and so, io the disappointment of us all, another cruiser was detailed to take on the job. Disappointing as it was to us, it must ha 'e been far more than that to the destroyer. For thirty-t-x hours sho had lain helpless, with alternate Pears of bein ; ; captured or of breaking up, and that after a sudden collision which would have been sufheent to shake the nerves of many. Four times had she hauled in towing wires, and on each occaso.i they had parted soon ; tterwards. Pitched and tossed about in the North Sea swell, tired and wet and with a good deal of their kit gone under, I should think that many of her crew were in tliat state of mind wliich is called 'fed-up.' And now she had to start the game again.

"But, profiting by our experience ot how great the strain was under the particular conditions, tho niff cruiser took special precautions, the which l will not detail lest the Bosches benefit. By very clever seamanship, and after over three hours' hard work, mostly a tlia dark, the destroyer was again -u tow, this timo moro securely; and so Ave started again on our journey homo. " There is not really much more wortn relating, for tho wind, sea, ,i couple ot snowstorms, our anxious look-out at daylight next morning to see if any enemy were about, and our precautions against submarine attack —these are everyday war events, and make dull reading. "Suffice it to say that our command of tho sea was a sufficiently real factor to ailow tho cripple to be towed home unmolested a few hundred miles, and w*e came to our base as if no enemy fleet were within a thousand miles—who can accuse the Teuton of no sense •. f humour when ho designated the water wo steamed over the 'German Ocean ? "So, comparatively timely, concluded a trip'which had at one time promised unusual excitement, but which anyhow gave us for four days some interest out of tho ordinary, l>esides to some a fair measure of anxiety. "But wouldn't old Tirpitz be peevish if he knew of the chance- he ha 1 missed?"