LIFE WITH THE GRAND FLEET.

Taranaki Daily News, 3 February 1916, Page 3

LIFE WITH THE GRAND FLEET.

HOW A GISEAT SHIP FOUGHT THE STORM. London, December 4. An East Coast Bailor (with the Grand Fleet), home on leave for a few days, relates an experience which his vessel underwent during a hurricane which came down from the north recently. One of the mightiest vessels in the Fleet loft port. She steamed right into the teeth of the north-wester, and the further they went, the worse it got. The heavil.v-armod and munitioned ship rolled and wallowed in the awful seas, and was toyed with by vast masses of water which towered as high as the fighting top, and was battered by them as her engines forced her straight at it at something like 17 knots. The struggle became terrible, and at times looked a hopeless one. ''lt was the biggest sea I have ever seen, and I never expected to see land any more. The vessel had gone down by the nose and was submerged to her foremost funnel. Every man had to look out for himself. A wireless message was sent out for help, but the weather moderating we found we could got along slowly under our own steam, and eventually reached port. "There is not a man but will be glad when we can get the Germans to fight. Tliev may be very good sailors, but when you see. our guns and the way they are handled, I would not give much for their chance. Besides, the Fleet is always growing stronger the longer they wait. New ships keep arriving apparently from nowhere. We look across the bay and say, 'Hello, what ship's that?' but no one can say, as no one >.as seen her before. It's wonderful—just what that American correspondent wrote."