SAILORS JOIN THE TROOPS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 August 1915, Page 12

SAILORS JOIN THE TROOPS.

SEVEN DARING BLUEJACKETS. Writing from Malta at the beginning of June, the special correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph says:—"lt has been stated by Italian newspapers, and also by many persons here who have come from the Near East, that great numbers of little boats have been abandoned or wrecked on the Gallipoli coast. A naval officer has furnished me with an explanation of the fact. Some of ihe British crews conveying landing parties suffered proportionately as heavy losses as did the soldier freights, but many of our sailors, when they saw them leaping Into the water amid a shower of Bhells and bullets, and struggling to the land, were wholly unable to resist the temptation to go with them. Clutching any rifles that offered, off they rußhed to clear the hell sunk in the precipitous rocks behind the brush. Their-blood was up, and many of the boats weTe left to themselves. As most of the sailors were found to be such good fellows in the hard fight, and such good companions, the soldiers would not let them go back to their boats for a long time. I have it on good authority that seven daring, reckless sailors set out with a firm determination to capture a body of 250 Turks, who had caused much annoyance and many deaths. An officer of the fleet assured me that had he not seen it hj» would not have believed that soldiers could do what ours did a month ago. Nothing could deter them, and nothing but positive orders could stop .them. The same eagerness prevails now, but there I is not the same necessity to make headway at all costs. No wounded soldier can furnish a comprehensive account of any engagement, but all speak of exploits that thrill. A warship in difficulty near Gaba Tepe was hauled off by another, at the very moment when Turkish guns were being trained on it for its destruction.