SUBMARINE STORES.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 March 1916, Page 8

SUBMARINE STORES.

HOW WE DEAL WITH THE PIRATES (By J. 8., in the London Daily Mail]. . Out of tile green depths, with the suddenness of a lightning flash, death rose at the .. Looking down from the bridge .her captain saw a glint of shining, swift-moving steel under the vessel's side. A second later a huge geyser roared skyward, cutting, as it rose, a great gap in the destroyer's side. "Torpedoed!" exclaimed the captain, and the words were almost choked back into his throat by tlie surg» that threw him overboard. A signalman standing on the bridge was shot up into the air like a bolt from a catapult, turned a somersault, and fell down into the sea, where, with one hand, lie instinctively grasped a floating spar, while-with the other he wiped the blood from his face in a dazed kind ef way—and cursed vigorously. Mcanwile, the captain was swimming about, with tight - set lips, trying to count the number of heads bobbing amid the waves, and fr»m them to estimate how many of his men lad gone down with their ship. This was chapter one of a grim war story. Chapter- two opened sohi« few days later, when the captain of the submarined destroyer walked into a certain admiral's office and said: '•I want you to let «ie liave a trawler, sir?" "Why?'? asked-the admiral. "I'm going out after one of those German submarines, and I won't come back tilt I've get one." '•"very well; take what y«'.i want." - Out in a' trawier went the captain. For some days he thrashed about the sea. sleepless, unresting, ever vigilantly lotking fer the quarry lie was hunting. And, as lie who seeks diligently will surely find, one norniag the captain's persistence was rewarded. There was a swirl -in the water on the trawler's beam, and up rose a II boat. From her canning tower emerged a man who shcuted in guttural English, "Take to your boats; I'm going to sink your ship. I'll give ysu five minutc-s to get clear ei* her." ''Will yeu?" snapper lsack the captain. "Before that time's up you'll be jielow." Even as he spake there caine the sr.arlhig snap of quickSrers f;'em the trawler. As their projectiles struck t'"i> submarine she seemed to quiver as th»ugh in pain, then she rolled sideways and sank, like a whale with a drath-wsimd. Without speaking a word the captain put h's trawler abDiif, and steered fur home. But before his mental visisn came a picture of his own ship going dawn inte the grave with many g»sQ men c»ffined in her —and he smiled. A LITTLE GRIM HUMOR, Fighting submarines is not- always so. grim a business, though sometimes an element of humor an;l no bloodshed characterises these encounters. Here, is a ease in point. A burly north-country skipper was bringing his ship—a little coasting craft te anchor, when he saw a periscope poke up right alongside Iter. Putting his hands to his month he shouted: "Ht.y, Geordie! Geordic!" A deck har.d answered the hail aid asked what was the matter. "Why, there's a submarine alongside us. Hop over r,u;ck and knock his eyes out er he'll sink us." Withaut any hesitation Geordie seized a hammer, sprang over the ship's side, and found himself upon the con-ning-to'.ver of a U boat. Promptly lie began to "lot swing" at the periscope lens. Apparently the boat had unkiiow. ingly come up alongside the ship and those in her wandered where sne had got to. Cautiously the conning tower opened and a seared face peeped out to investigate. Geordie went for this, toe. Dswn went the tcwer-hateli; Bewn also went the submarine and scuttled away. As Gecidio scrambled back abeard his own craft the skipper calmly I remarked to hi:n: "Well dene, lid; that was a near shave, that was. A' t'.iowt she had lis that tirao rret eno.iah." There wan "emewhat more finesse in the way anet.'ier tr.'.v.'ler skipper ecrndpcteil an interview with a IJ boat, though the result was equally bad for tlm en°wy. This parMcr.lar skipper war, -a- f:ir?eeiag man. Ho felt pretty certain that pome day sne of von Tiij.irz';; pirates wnuid overhml Vim. so he ;>re?sn>d for the terrier.—and kept prepared—in k ;inipl« kui effective way. Screened f~(*m view by pile of :ie:s stood ene of his men v.-iiis the crutch cf a quickCrcr to ].i.s rhe.iMer—and tlii« ma was aiways "on wale/.''; es ore might sav, he constant'}- hajl his finder on the trigger. Well that it wa; so, for one not particularly fine day ' U " pushed her r_9«e v.p and .the pirate chief in cemmard af her began to Qiv? the n°ual peremptory craers to '•a'janilcr, ship." New. as it happened, nr.r skipper was caught awkwardly; tin "uhmarmc lay at a point where hU gun .would not bear upon her. But he wa". a wan ef re?e;\rce. Pretending to be panic, stricken, be gradually, and apparently aimlessly, began to west- hi* ship round '9«"tha! she cotild- get a clear shot at the Mi»niv.- All the time, he continued to stamp absut the bridge, sheuting at the crew and giving a first-class iiupcrj sor.ntion of a man who had lost his head iii the presr:i?e of danger, "Hurry up, hurry up! I can only give you a few more- minutes," the pirate kept urging. "Can't ye see Ism hnrrvin'. 'eai up all I can?" declared the skipper, who reared at his men'. "Hustle alang there,, you lubberly sea-cooks an' get out the beats, else we shall all he drowned. I never saw such a lot o' slow, beachcombing fellows. Hustle, I tell vou, hustle!" Ail this time his ship was slowly being manoeuvred into firing,poiii,:on'. As she reached tin the skipper drove at his crew with extra vigor. Then, step- ' P' n 2 quickly by the bridge rails, and

putting his palm outward before his mouth, the skipper said in a tense aside to the man at the gun: "Now, Tom, let go; an' if ye don't sink him I'll come down and knock y'r head off." Tom ."let go," and the result did not endanger his head. THE WELSH SKIPPER. ' No matter what part of the kingdom they eome from, the spirit of the plucky old sea-dogs who command the Navy's auxiliaries is the same. They are never 1 craven. A Welsh skipper found himself in charge of a vessel "sweeping" off the coast. Suddenly a'trail of smoke smudged the horizon and four destroyers came into View. "Jawl, look at that now; I'm think-, ing them'U be Jer-r-ma'ns, Dafydd boy," quote 'the skipper to his mate. "An' what'll we do; shy coal at' 'em ?" growled Dafydd through his i scrubby red beard. The skipper put on full speed, but as well might a tortoise try to nun away from a greyhound. Within a few minutes the fletilla was close abeasa, and the destr»yers began firing at the "sweepers" as they spun past. Splinters flew frepi vari«us parts of her, although the markmanship was not "top line." Fast on her bridge st«»d the skipper, saying things that were n»t pray-, ers, his'' Celtic-klsed absil. The last vessel of the figtilla slowed dewn. "Ccrap -alangside me." peremptsrily megaphoned her commanding effic-er to the "sweeper.'' "Aye, ave," replied the skipper, throwing .up his hand in assent. And lie went alongside, though quite in a different way from what the enemy ex- : pc-ct'ed. Turning his ship's Uews on to the destroyer he rang for "Full speed ahead," and drove his vessel stem first into the enemy—rammed him savagely —knocking some of his gear »verboard, and cutting a big hole in his plattng. Much to the skipper's surprise, he had not expected so tame a finish, the destroyer showed no fight, but made off as fast as he could. When later the skipper was congratulated upon his pluck by an officer of patrols he replied: "Oh. that's nothin'. Indeed, l»ufc I only did w'nat l»e told me.''