THE SEA BATTLE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 134, 30 October 1914, Page 7

THE SEA BATTLE.

UNDAUNTED RETURNS. GREAT RECEPTION AT HARWICH. STORIES OF THE FIGHT. London, October 22. There was a great scene on the quays , at Harwich when 11.M.. Undaunted, fresh from her first light, led the destroyers up the river. The shriek of sirens announced their approach, and the pier and riverside were thronged, and loud cheers resounded again and again, and were answered from the decks. One of the combatants states: "The Germans fought like heroes, but they were outmanoeuvred and outmatched by superior gunnery. In less than two hours the last of the four, battered and bested, went to the bottom. The Germans fought to the end, and the majority of them went down with their ships."

A member of the crew of one of the destroyers says that the first indication that the British got of the Germans was the sighting of smoke off the Dutch coast. It soon became obvious that this came from the enemy's ships. THREE IN AN HOUR. The Undaunted opened fire at about five miles range. The destroyers were in closer. There was a running fight of an hour and a-half. Three Germans were sunk within an hour. A British destroyer was twice hit. A. shell pierced her stern above the rudder, making a hole as big as a dinner plate, and another swept the deck and took off the foot of an officer who was at the after gun. The captain of a trawler which has arrived at Ymuiden, in Holland, says: "The destroyers raced around like dogs, 'harking and biting."

A sailor describes the vessels as waltzing round like dancers in a ballroom, with the Hook of Holland lightship as a pivot.

Captain Mantripp, the skipper of n Lowestoft trawler, describes how r ne saw the naval engagement off the Dutch coast at 2 on Saturday afternoon. ne says that he noticed the German destroyers steaming 'in line, and he thought they were making for the Belgian coast. He watched awhile, and then went below to dinner. Coming up again, sie foiind that the Germans had turned completely round and-were steaming at the greatest speed in the other direction.

It looked as though they were running away from something. Then he noticed other warships coming from the north, and these lie identified as British. HOW THEY WERE WATCHED. The Germans opened out as much as they could, hut the following ships immediately detected the move. One destroyer went west and others east and north. The cruiser must have been eight miles away when she fired her first shell, but the destroyers came on quickly. "As the British gunners fired," goes on the narrative, "the Germans responded for all they were worth, but as the cruiser got nearer she let go with three or four guns almost at once. Then, from for'ard another gun was fired, and when the smoke cleared away I saw one of the German destroyers absolutely jump out of the water. It looked like a house on fire.

"I climbed to the masthead to get a better view. The enemy's destroyers were struck and went down one after another. By 4 o'clock they were all sunk." One of the German survivors said that he came from the Emdcn. lie added that the German guuner» was 110 good when the ships were on the run.