H.M.S. ABDIEL.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1916, Page 5

H.M.S. ABDIEL.

A GRAND FLEET SECRET- ' ' / -A JUTLAND BATTLE MYSTER7, ' V I ■;■ ."jj ! London, Nov. S. ' In no book referring to the Navy at I'ii sont available to the public will the mime of H..Vr.S. Abdiel be found, but ■ ' uro hints and whispers touring ■•'vabroad which suggest that when we afd .> 1 crmitted to read the full, and true stcry of the great Jutland naval fight i Die imnii will speedily become "a house- :'1 bold word." At present we do not kflflV f $ fo>' certain whether the Abdiel is a d«. V 1 jl rr.y er, cruiser or battleship but th#t , sli." "said her say" in the Jutland battle m a most effective manner even no*r sowing pretty obvious when certain facts ' .*■ ■«rc collected. In fiudyard Kiplinrii - first article on the work of the deatrojw* t in the gi'eat naval fight there wa» thk " mysterious passage:— | T1 looks, then, r if 'when we loft /' «.'j:ht of the enemy the smoke saretn find darkness, had broken |nr '/j I.omc astern our inu fleet. And wh#. iher taat was a .pound' manoeuvre OB otherwise he and the still flows of thtf North Sea alone can tell." y y< This passage roused a good deal curiosity, and many people have arriwd V \ at the conclusion that it should be read 'J in conjunction with the final paragmph" *- in Admiral Jellicoe's despatch conosniiiif* the first day of the battle—which to ' \ nil intents and purposes was the end of his description of the fighting. TbJ# - i piragraph ran thus:— ■ j' ! s "Abdiel,' ably commanded by Oonw mander Berwick Carter, carried out BM duties with the success which h&e M ' \ ways characterised her work," 1 ;

a naval correspondent who Submitted ' to the Press censor a narrative on ipota dents in the fleet—in referring to tW|l •. „« fate of the Germans at Jutlaiia, '. v was allowed to embody thin sentence# i ' " he Germans had enough of it bjr thd tiivio the Abdiel finished her job.'V '< Mr. Kipling's suggentiin of fie "' bability that the Germans may nothavej thofcen the wisest retreat, the magnii ficuit, if brief, commendation of tha j Abdiel by Sir John Jellieoe, and the W.i fivence by the naval great fight *ll point to some secret locked deep in the Grand .( Fleet. * :■}

In all the criticisms of the naval bat* -j; tli', all the narratives of the night ol vunderful deeds, 110 mention was evit

•-mule of the Abdiel, the tribute by f&o C" mmandor-in-Chief was, so brief It ■ J passed generally unobserved. The 'Abi .i diel is unfamiliar to the public, ■ is not known in all corners of the Eqpt ' p're like the Iron Duke, the Lion, the i 'gcr and the Queen Elizabeth, but it it ; hinted by men who may be presumed to v know something of what occurred- on t s that fateful night that when the day ■ cotnoa to tell the full story of Jutland i Abiliel will stand out in letters of gold in the records of the British Navy, and tl At a tale will be told which our sue* ■ cnsors will hand on to tho generations t*o come even as we have handed doffs the story of the Victory at Trafalgar, ,|