MINE SWEEPERS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 175, 29 March 1915, Page 3

MINE SWEEPERS.

REAL HEROES , OF THE WAR. “The real heroes of the war rare ;hose trawler chaps hi the North Sea,” This was the remark of a naval man ho recently arrived in Sydney, upy vho has seen something of the well f t!i y trawlers now that they have ;;ct v.'.e :. n. adjunct to the navy. "Veil w c.uhi remember, if yen knew the north-east coast of England, these trawlers in the clays prior to the outbreak of war,” .went on the sailor, “They were painted any old colour ■Mid their crews wore any old. costume. They went off to, the Dogger, or auyv. here else .handy, where there was a chance of landing fish, and came back to Grimsby or Hull or Hartlepool, or whichever their heme port happened to be, sold th'eir catch, and,went off trawling again after an interval on shore.”. ; : “It is quite another story now.-The trawlers are all painted navy grey,and the erstwhile crews have been .fittedout hi smart blue jerseys, bearing the let!.!r s , R.N.R. in red on them. • ■The: fleets have practically been absorbed into the British Navy, and are commissioned to sweep the seas for mines. This does-not sound much, bur it means a lot, for if any body of men ever entered upon-an enterprise carrying their lives in their hands, it i s the personnel of this mine sweeping fleet. Each of the crew draws the princely income of 3s Gd pier day, and for this bo spends ten days at sea and four in pert—that is, if he ever lives to return to port. “It’s all right for the men in the destroyers, the submarines, the cruisers, and the battleships. They have a chance of hitting back if they are hit, but these chaps on the trawlers have no chance. If they foul a mine, instead of clearing it, there is little hope for them. Trawlers are not divided into water-tight compartments, like war-vess'els; they are merely little tank s for the storage of fish. If you ever saw the ill-fated Australian trawler, the Endeaour, then you have seen the North Sea trawlers, for the Endeavour was built on their lines. “In these little vessels the crews \go out into the grey North Sea, with its bitter cold and its mountainous waters —af any rate at this tints of the year -—-and drag for mines. A man who has done his turn in the engine room of a destroyer running trials has to have a bit of nervfe, but the coldblooded bravery of these trawlinjg crew s in handling mines is something to make a man astonished. I did a trip on one of these trawlers, when we picked up or put out of action a number of mines, and I tell you it was a hair-raising experience. The crew of the trawler, howev’ar, took it as all in the day’s work, and I’ll stake my word cf honour that not one of them but would have roared with laughter if he had been called a hero.. We were in a wire hawser stretched between' the company with another trawler, havinfe two cf us, and from this were' suspended drags to rope in any mines which lay between us. When one ot the drags struck a mine and the deathdealing abomination wa s sighted, the crew would yell “Thar she blows!” or “What ho! she bumps!” and handle the wicked looking steel devil as if' it were as innocent of harm -as a baby. While we were on our ten days’ duty two trawlers were blown to fragments through bumping the mine s they had come out to collect. Luckily we escaped, and though I don’t consider myself exactly a coward, I was heartily relieved when I put my feet ashore after the cruise. “Sheer cold-blooded heroism! That is the only way to describe the work cf these men in their little vessels in the North Sea. They are not decorated —as yet —with D.S.M.’s, or V.C.’s, although they deserve them if any fighters ever did. They don’t get a chance of a smack at the other fellow, as the chaps in the navy and army do. If they go out and come back safe, it’ s only to ]go out again and again, until some morning at the conclusion of the ten days a trawler fails to turn up. There is no fuss even then. A few more mothers mourn the loss of sons, a few more wives become widows, and a few more children become fatherless —that is all. But the work of sweeping the seas for mines goios on.”