TALES OF THE SEA.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 November 1916, Page 7

TALES OF THE SEA.

IN WAR-TIME. NO WORRY OVER SUBMARINES. "Yes, I have seen something of the war since I was last in Wellington," said the captain. ''Transport work, and so on. But a good deal of it must not be told, and I am not much ot a band at spinning a yarn anyway. The nun. who get the real thrills are'in the Xavv— K.N., R.N.R., R.N.V.R., and so on-and they don't talk at all, except over the mess table. ' After two years of war, things that would have seemed sensational are pretty much a matter of course for them. "No; I have never seen an enemy submarine, though I have been, eiose to ships that got torpedoed. I have heard gunfire, hut I have not seen gun? at work—ours or tlie enemy's. One night the warning came that a ship had been torpedoed and sunk a couple of hours' steam ahead of us. We chang'-.d our course promptly, and made a run with lights-out, according to orders received. We saw nothing, and heard nothing hut what tlie wireless told us. At a port I saw a tramp close in with her bridge battered, her sides holed, and her decks scored by fragments of shell. She had met a'German submarine, made a run for it, and got a-way under fire after a bit of dodging. Her skipper said the enemy seemed to be a bit nervous about closing in, though there was really nothing to be afraid of. i I've heard that the submarines have had ] surprises on occasions. I

"Anxious times? Oh, yes, in a way. But one does not worry about the submarines or the mines more than is necessary. A master who does that will lose his nerve sooner or later, and then he will have to look for a shore job. Some good men have suffered that way already. The business got cm their minds, you know, and they started dodging bits of seaweed and imagining dangers at times when there were quite enough real ones to go round. The only way in these days is just to 'carry on,' and deal with situations as they arise. When a ship is in dangerous waters, the master usually has fairly definite orders, .and if he sticks to thein he can afford to take np a philosophical attitude with regard to the possibilities of meeting trouble. Men who have been in very tight corners me that they attended to their job, and just watched to sec what was going to happen.*' The captain had tales to tell of many men, some of them famous, most of them unknown except in the inner circles where they are serving the Empire quietly and heroically. There is a "bilious little licutertant," who commands a British submarine, and has re- '■ ceived the Victoria Crosi from the hands of the. King for deeds that de-1 manded extraordinary skill and hardiood. This officer, like Nelson, is always ! seasick when he puts to sea, and, unlike the great admiral, he does not recover until lie returns to port. Be *gecs yellower and more miserable the whole time, but he will take his boat anywhere at all.' ' There are other men, hardhanded sailors of the old school, as scornful still of smart caps and gold lace as they were in the days wh»<: trim men-o'-war glided past their fishing .smacks or tramp steamers. They wear a uniform themselves now, but they will have even admirals understand l that they have come to the assistance of "the service" as independent men, and, as it were, without prejudice. "Queer things happen in wartime," said the .ca'ptain. "I expect iots ofpeople in this country have wished for news of a certain steamer that used to be very familiar to them. Well, she is not the smart and comfortable boat any. move. When I last heard of her, a. month or two ago, she was in the Clyde for extensive repairs. Her turbines were said to be practically worn out, after a long spell of very severe work under trying conditions. She had done many thousands of miles at top speed in all weathers, in waters infasted by submarines. I heard that one dark iilght_she was racing from one port to another port—it might not do to mention names—in a heavy sea, with all lights out. Something dark iooked ahead, and almost before she could answet her helm she was driving past a British cruiser, running at 20 knots or so in- the other direction. The ships almost touched; they had missed a headon collision by a matater of feet, and in a few moments they had lost one another again. All in the day's work " '•'Would you think it possible for a big steamer, with a full cargo, to get mislaid? Well, there was a case of this kind. The ship had frozen meat aboard, and the stuff was wanted for the tioops in one of the war zones. The master was instructed to take her to a certain port and wait there for further orders. He' waited week after week, and no orders came, 'ln the meantime the Army authorities at a point not very far away were commandeering meat from passing steamers. The record regarding: that waiting ship had gone astray, or got tucked into a pigeon-hole or something ,and nobody could understand whv,.the shortage of meat -had arisen. Xot until the master telegraphed asking how much longer he was to keep his refrigerating plant running on his diminishing stpek of coa! did the authorities discover; what was the matter. No, I don't think that sort of tiling has happened often. In fact, the big war machine seems to run with wonderful smoothness. I suppose a cog nuist slip sometimes. But when the final count is made, the nation will find that very few of them have slipped in the sea services,"