THE SURGEON'S LAST VOYAGE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 210, 12 February 1915, Page 7

THE SURGEON'S LAST VOYAGE

I ROMANTIC STORY OF HOW AND WHY THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE SAILED TO THE PACIFIC AND THERE MET ITS FATE. "The following letter was written to a friend by Mr Francis 0. Searle, who was serving as suregon on board 11.M.S Good Hope, when she was lost in the action off the Chilean coast," says tin Tin:es. The letter was posted in the collier in Thursday, October 2!), and the action in which the writer lost his 'ife took place at sunset on Sunday, November 1:

'• 'II.M.S. Good Hope, N. Cruiser Squadron, October 25.

"'l'll start with the Spithcad review and manoeuvres, which lasted just over fourteen days. I wa's in the ship, as it was my war appointment. ,We paid oil' for four days, when I returned to the Vernon. Suddenly one night we got the order: "Mobilise," and with an hour to pack two tin cases I found myself on board again. Most of us brought only a change of gear, myself among them. Not even a watch overcoat, for the nights were warm. We were patrolling the Irish coast when war was declared, and when off the Southern Hebrides, were ordered to sweep the Atlantic trade routes for hostile cruisers.

ADMIRAD CRADOCK CHANGES SHIPS. ""We reached Halifax on August 11 after many alarms, clearing for action when sighting anv craft. We stopped, many English merchantmen,, and informed them of war and their course in consequence, but not a blessed German. Since reaching Halifax, we have been a veritable flviiig squadron. When we had coaled, who should come along but Cradock's flagship Suffolk. He liked this ship better than his own, so forty miles east of New York lie shifted his flag and e:\me aboard with his staff one Sunday afternoon.

'Then to Bermuda, then St. Lucia', West Indies, then Trinidad, sweeping for tlie enemy all the way. Tlien the coast of Venezuela and Nortli Brazil (lio't as Mazes). Pernamlmeo next, to find '23 German merchantmen m «"ly ensconced behind" tlie breakwater, and so in neutral water. Various harbours oil' Brazil and then to Montevideo. I took a broncho'pnneumonia case ashore there in a tug, so saw something of what is quite a line ajul' typical Spanish South American town. The coast of Argentina was bare, and so o n to Magellan Strait and a visit to Punta Arenas (Sandy Point), a Chilean town, but with a colony of 800" English and' a good' English club with 200 town members. Of all towns I think this was to me the most "surprising, ■for with my somewhat insular ideas, confined to the British Tsles and Mediterranean, I had looked upon it as a small Chilean convict settlement, devilish colil, convicts guarded by cut-throats, and no place for any of i:s.

VISIT TO FALKLAND ISLANDS. "'We rounded the Horn twice and visited the Falkland Islands— most cold and desolate of our Umpire's outposts and the most southern. I' met four of our profession there, Dr. Pearcc and his wife (both Edinburgh), a Guy's man. who i 3 a major of the local forces and O.C. as well", and' another called Wace, once of Western Australia.

'"Of our plans, our bases, sources of supply, and' composition of our forces I may not tell you, lest cur mail be captured and valuable information fall into tlie hands of tlie"- enemy. It is a life stranger than any-most of us have lived through. This has been my first experience, too, of being without fresh provisions and" minus potatoes and having restricted grub. However, we mustn't grumble; yet war is the most unpleasant existence of any.

ALBATROSS IN OUR WAKE. " 'We are now in the Pacific, albatross sailing along in our wake, and snowclad mountains of Pacific slopes visible On the starboard hand. My first letter, and only one, reached mo October 22 in a collier. Three months of mails is following somewhere, somehow. We send in a variety of ways—store-ships, colliers, mail steamers, a stray bag at an out-of-the-way Consul's. Storeships are a snare and a delusion, we've come to the conclusion.

" 'So much is going 011 at home that wo, think the Admiralty have forgotten their trade routes squadron 10,000 miles from London town. Who would have thought, who could have told yours truly, with one hour's notice, now rolling at sea exactly where we must not s'v ? Five German cruisers against us. What's the betting on the field? Prav to your penates we may prevent them concentrating. " 'The days arc full of monotony. First aii! lectures are. borin? to a degree, for one can't say too mujh or it becomes a positive danger. Our casualties have been so far two. A stoker got buried in an avalanche of coal in a bunker and a se:,leant of marines got an acute heart attack —one buried off Venezuela, the other oft' tile Horn. 1i.1.P.'"