UP TO THE DARDANELLES.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 July 1915, Page 8

UP TO THE DARDANELLES.

A MEDITERRANEAN STORM. BRITISH SEA DOGS. The following graphic story was written by the Times' correspondent on a naval vessel (description omitted) going from .Malta to the Dardanelles: \\ e are a Fleet messenger, under orders to arrive at our destination without delay; and we press on, groping out May blindly, and risking 'bumps with the Archipelago. The captain never, leave., the bridge for nearly 48 hours at a stretch. 'The sea is breaking over our decks, leaving the Well a huge hath of raging surf. Once, when the sun appears i for a moment, we sec, a quarter of a i mile away, a small tug towing a lighter ! and making very bad weather. She signals: "Can you tell me where I am? Have lost my reckoning.'' We repty as approximately as possible, although our captain frankly admits privately that he knows little more than the tug. Then she replies: "Have lost three of my four lighters, broken loose; have you sighted them?" We have, not, and tell her so. One, more signal and we part company: "Yen might tell the Admiral when you get in." ! Then we are off, and the tug and the lighter, which have come all the way from Malln, are swallowed up from view by the huge seas. That night we have to slow down, because a well-known island, which I will not name, but which is sacred to Venus, the Goddess of Love, refu-es to reveal her whereabouts under such conditions, and the captain remarks.- "We can't bare a love affair in the middle of a war like this." si'us.wnn.' trawlers. At dawn the sea has risen oven more, but it is rather clearer, and the Isle o* Love is visible not far off. Then we sight, two little black dots a long way to port, and the captain pronounces tliem .o oe trawlers. They are obviously making frantic efforts to overtake us, -o we slow down and wait in the trough of the sea. They are having about as rotten a time as anyone could wish for. Every sea sweeps them from bow to stem. They roll right under the waves and disappear from view for minutes at a time, and then come bobbing no again, onlv to disappear once more. The low bridges are swept by the surf, and even the funnels and masts are hidden in the white cloud of breaking foam. "They are are two North Sea trawlers.'' says the captin, ''and wonderful set boats tlievi are, but a bit uncomfortable in weather like this." The mild estimate of what the crews must be suffering sounds almost cruel and callous to the layman's cars. When f.hov came up we can ■make out on the line bridges two figures covered in oilskins, ■but, nevertheless drenched through and looking like drowned rats. They are fwo young sub-lieutenants, not out of their "teens.'' who have been placed in charge of these trawlers to lake them to the Dardanelles. They have come -.1 might from the North Sea., and have -uil'ored every imaginable form of discomfort on the way. For Hie last 48 hours they have been swept fore and aft bv the huge waves, and their officer! I,'a.ve not been able to leave llio bridge. fhi'l both are cheerful and hnppv and pcrfertlv frank. They hail us through the megaphone: "We are <|udc lost: haven't an idea, where wc arc; where are von bound for? Can wc follow you ■■n"" Our captain gives our destination, vvhieli I am not allowed to do. and nve more we get under way.

The two trawlers, trying to keep dose en Vuive to incren"e their speed, and get more buried in the waves than ever before Thcv dance on the jo;, of a wave, are lost, to view, then roll their givn'v.-]™ under, and twist and turn like freak dancers. They fall behind, but |. ,„.,-, „s in view until at length we sight <mii- destination. Fveiv- full -'hip "--whether a battleship, transport or cargo boat-is moving east,.~,nlq in the Mediter'-aiican. Those wliicli "o west are empties returning for I've h loads of wariors. ammunition or .fo'cs ' All are animated bv the same ■,.„i,'.m';tiible nvnt. You see it on the l,.,tUe-Vn on the transport, and in the little liv' For l 1"' r,rsl ' ti "' l, s ' , "'' , tllf ' hist Cm«nde I be West is turning towards Ihe East.