AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 January 1917, Page 6

AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE.

TWO SUBMARINES SUNK. A Palmerstoiyan lias received an in- ; teresting, letter'"irom a member of a reI'crriV. reinforcement,'.4ll which he deIscribes a thriiiinf* incident witnessed froni£the transport when nearing its destination. Ho writes: "I forgot to teli [you that we nearly didn't pet here at all, and saw our first bit of the war abcuf'lflO miles from Plymouth. We had been 24 hours without an escort and by ourselves, as we left the other transports when our escort loft and went on ahead for all we were "worth. There wasn't a horrible safe feeling that niglit or. o'ttr owe, and the skipper spent most of his time on the bridge. However, a destroyer blew along at K in the morning. She. liad been delfyed chasing 'subs.' 1 was of the submarine guard, and about ten was watching a boat ahead of us doing some funny stunts. \Ye got the glasses on it, and spotted a 'sub,' and next ihing saw a jet of water go up as high as the mast of the boat ahead (a mine sweeper). Oil went our destroyer like a certain kind of cat and opened .fire, likewise the sweeper, am", flfc shells were splashing all about Hit 'sub.' which had come right up. The| first g\iot from the destroyers knocked the coining .tower off, ah-1 that settled her. T\vo • inorc shoW" settled another 'sub' on. thel'otherjiside ,'of the sweeper. The latter took a long "time to sink, but tlio'.'subs' went, straight down. All| tlie; sweeper's crew were,saved. This 1 was very interesting, and while it -was goin? on'we were busy dd'-ng complicate.d„is'tunts in a circle. We all shook lands with ourselves, as hid we been five minutes earlier we would have got it. 'Struth, but those naval gunners can shoot.'' «v-. '