On the Sea
HUNTING THE HUN. I ' CRUISE OF THE MELBOURNE, CHASING THE GERMANS.
CHRISTCHURCH LAD'S EXPERI-
ENCES.
Mr R. J. M'Gee, son of Captain M'Gee, of the Dunedin headquarters* staff'6f the Defence Office, returned to Christehurch invalided, after close upon two years' service in tlie Australian Navy, a term of service:which included a year's cruise in H.M.A.S. Melbourne, during the exciting period when the British fleet and that of its allies were busily engaged in chasing the German flag off the high seas. AT THE OUTBREAK OF WAR. At the time of the outbreak of war Mr M'Gee was one of the ship's company on board the cruiser Melbourne, then at Palm Island, off the northeastern coast of Australia. When the news of the declaration of war reached the Melbourne, she was ; headed south at 20 knots for Sydney, and on arrival there she received orders to steam along the south coast to try to pick up a German passenger steamer which was known to be somewhere m k the locality. Before she'conld. sake a capture, however, a wireless message headed her back to Sydney again, and she was sent to take part 'in -the. raid made by the Australian forces on the German colony of Rabauli The' surrender of the enemy forcesi.it 1 that place occurred just in time to prevent a landing party from the Melbourne taking part in the fun, it which they were naturally disappointed. The men on the Melbourne took part in the search for the submarine AE2, which was lost with all hands on the' dangerous coast there; no trace was found of the missing submarine, and it was surmised that she struck one of the numerous coral reefs or uncharted rocks and foundered.
"A LITTLE JOB OF HER OWN." From Rabaul the cruiser wont to New Caledonia, and there she met and escorted the New Zealand Somoan force. The fleet went to Fiji, wh- J 'e it coaled, and after the bloodless taking of Samoa, the Melbourne went ofr on " a little job of her own," as Captain Mortimer L'E. Silver called it, which job was the capturing of Pleasant Island (a German possession), and the hauling down of the German flag and the hoisting of British colors, which were saluted with gun fire. Then the Melbourne, after taking all the coal out of a suspicious-looking tramp, went back to Sydney, and on to Albany, Wlifere the big fleet of 43 transports, with tlie Australian and New Zealand troops, had' congregated for the trip to Egypt. The escort for the fleet was made -up of H.M.S. Minotaur, H.M. A.S. Melbourne and Sydney, and the Japanese cruiser Ibuki. About two days' run out from Albany the Minotaur left, steaming west; then came the historic message regarding the Emden, and off went the Sydney to abolish that busy raider. The Ibnki was then left in charge of the fleet, and the Melbourne steamed away at 20 knots for Colombo, where she coaled and left for Aden. After coaling again, she sailed for Port Said, and eventually for Malta, where the crew got ashore for the first time since leaving Sydney. Three days were spent at Malta, a week at Gibraltar, and then off went the cruiser again;.to the Canary Island she orders from a mysterious ship at night-time, and sailed at once for Bermuda, being driven two degrees north of her urse bvt a violent storm. «•-'•'''"«'•
IN AMERICAN WATERS.'" From Bermuda the Melbourne went to St. Lucia, and on to r £rinidad, and then started a systematic search at the whole of the north-east and north coast of South America from the mouth 'of the Orinoco to Colon. Every little 'bay and indentation and river mouth in this stretch of the coast was search'ed for the elusive Karlsruhe, with no luck, unfortunately. The ship then made Gingston, Jamaica, her headquarters, and for some weeks she and the French cruiser Conde took turns in patrolling all the islands, such as Cuba and Porto Rico, where German vessels were known to be lying. Word then came that the Kron Prinz Wilhelm was going north, and the Melbourne went at full speed to Bermuda to try to intercept her. Still the luckwas out, and the Kron Prinz got safely into Newport News, and was interned, the Melbourne meanwhile l patrolling Chesapeake Bay, and later | going back to Bermuda, after seeing I the American fleet assembling for a re- ' view. Then came a spell oi"patrolling outside New Ypi'V ;1!ul after some days of this, back went the Melbourne again to Bermuda, where she was drydocked and overhauled. Here Mr M'Gee was struck down by malaria, and had to go into hospital, where he stayed for two months. When he was hetter lie got a passage in the armed liner Corona to Halifax, N.S., and was transferred to H.MS. Carnarvon. This cruiser,- accompanied by two collars, escorted six submarines from Nova Scotia to England; the passage, which was necessarily slow, was very trying, as for live days the boats were held up by fogs and encountered very bad weather also. On the fourteenth day of the trip six destroyers dashed up at full speed, and four of them took the submarines in charge, and H.M.S. ;'ar.inivun left with the others, nt 20 mots, for Plymouth.
HARDEST' KIND OF ; LUCK. Here Mr M'Gee was discharged into the Stonehouse Naval Hospital, where he remained for six weeks,: Then ji<? was given a month's leave, and spent it in enjoyable visits to relatives in Ireland. Returning to Plymouth, he, with some of H.M.A.S. Australia's invalids from the North Sea. was sent up to Tilbury, and after some sightseeing in London they all joined the S.s. Omrah, for Australia, which was reached after an interesting voyage under war conditions. The men of the Melbourne had a rather trying time during their year's chase-it was war conditions all the time, practically—and they all felt that it was the hardest kind of luck that they never met the enemy.
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Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 32, 13 January 1916, Page 3
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1,004On the Sea Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVIV, Issue 32, 13 January 1916, Page 3
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