IN THE DOOMED BLUCHER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 254, 6 April 1915, Page 6

IN THE DOOMED BLUCHER.

Havoc ok the siiiiLLS.

VIVID STOW US OF THE LA.-'l' HCICXKS.

The article, printed below was written liy a correspondent who ha.; !ia-l tile opportunity of talking with i.-.sny ot tin; wounded from tin; 'ierii.an oriii.-L-i Blueher, wliioh was sunk in the recent engagement in the North Sea: - The fight began ut I) o'clock (German time) precisely. The stok :r slid so, mid he knew, because he heard *,1": first shot as he went oil duty. The Butish chips were on the lioiizo?i, soiii-' I;> or 10 kilometres distant, when tliey started to fire. Shots came closolv at first. They fell ahead and over, raising last, columns ot water: now jell astern and short. The British guns were ranging. Those deadly water spouts crept nearer and nearer. The rsen deck watched them with a fascination. Soon one pitched -do-,"! tc t.h> ship and a vast watery pillar, 100 irctres high, one of them aflhwl, M 'ashing on the deck. The range hail b?en found. Dann aber ging's los!

A DARKNESS THAT COULD BE FELT.

Xow the shells came thicK :>nd fast witli a horrible droning hum. At once they did terrible execution. The electric'plant was destroyed, and the ship plunged in a darkness thut could be felt. "You could not see you'.' hand before your nose," said one. I'iowii bciow decks there was horror and ci-nfus-ion, mingled with gasping shouts and moanji as the shells plunged through the decks. It was only later, when the range shortened, and their trajectory flattened and they tore holes in the ship's sides and raked iicr decks. At flvsi they came dropping from the sky. They penetrated the decks. They bored their way even to the stokehold. The coa' in the bunkers wag set on fire. Since !>e bunkers were half empty, the fire burned merrily. In the engine-room a shell licked up the oil and sprayed'it around in flames of blue and green, scarring its victims and blazing where it fell. Men huddled together in dark compartments, but the shells sought them out, and* there death had a rich harvest.

HORRIBLE DEATHS, terrific air-pressure fisi.hing from explosion in a confined j-paee, left a deep impression on the minds -.i': tl',3 men of the Blucher. The air, it would seem, roars through every op;:n ; M<,' anj tears its way through every weak spot. All loose or insecure fittings are transformed into moving instruments iJ destruction. Open doors bang t), und jam —and closed iron doors bent outward like tinplates, and through it all the bodies of men are whirled about iilco dead leaves in a winter blast, to b? battered to death against the iron wai'.i. There were shuddering horrors, intensified by the darkness or semi gloom. As one poor wretch was passing through a trap-door a shell burst near him. Ho was exactly half-way through. The trap-door closed with a torrid: snip. In one of the engine-rooms—it was t'lie room where the high velocity engines for ventilation and forced draught were at work—men were picked iip'liv that terrible Luftdruck, like the whirl drift of a street corner, and tossed to a horrible de'tth amidst the machinery. There were other horrors too fearful to recount.

ONE CONTINUOUS EXPLOSION.

If it was appalling below deck, it was more than appalling above. The Bluclier was under the fire of so ir,nny ships. Even the little destroyers peppered her. ''lt was one continuous explosion," said a gunner. The ship heeled over as the broadsides struck her, then righting herself rocking like a cradle. Gun crews were so destroyed that stokers had to be requisitioned to carry, ammunition. Men lay flat for safety. The decks presented a tangled mass of scrap-iron. In one casement, the only one, as they thought, nndestroyed, two men continued to ser.-c their Run. They fired it as the ship listed, adapting the elevation to the new situation. Yet through it all some never despaired of their lives. Others from the beginning gave themselves up as lost. The disaster came upon them so suddenly that few had time to anticipate their plight or to realise it when it came.

THE LAST PARADE. The Blucher had run her course. She was lagging lame, and with the steering gear gone was beginning slowly to circle. It was seen that she was doomed. The boll that rang the men i o church parade each Sunday was tolled, those 'who were able assembled on deck helping as well as they could thci,wounded comrades. Some had to creep out through shot holes. They gathj':i;d in groups on deck awaiting the end Cheers were given for the Blucher, and® three more for the Kaiser. "Die Wacht am Rhcin" was sung, and permission given to leave the ship. But ■j.vnc ol" them had already gone. The British ships were now silent, but their torpedoes had done their deadly work. ' A cruiser and desti'oyer were at hand to rescue the survivors. The wounded Blucher settled down, turned wearily over, and disappeared in a swirl of water.