A STOLEN TUG.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1919, Page 11

A STOLEN TUG.

BRITISH OFFICER'S ESCAPE. FLEEING FROM THE TURKS. SHOCK FOR ENEMY PATROL.

A few days ago a cabled message reported briefly a Prize Court decision relating to eight British officers, who escaped from ifozgad, iu Turkey, in a stolen tug, in 1&18. They reached the coast in an emaciated condition, after untold privations and hairsbreadth escapes, including encounters with brigands. They swam to the Turkish tug Hertha, lying in the harbor, noiselessly raised the anchor, and rowed off under the nose of the sentry. They then started the engines and made for Cyprus, their compass being the sun. The Court congratulated the officers, and decreed the prize theirs.

The full story of the party's adventures was recently published in Blackwood's Magazine, and the June issue contains the thrilling story of the capture of the tug and the escape. The officers had escaped from custody, and had been living in the most precarious fashion, in continual peril of discovery and starvation. They were so weak that a single cigarette passed round on one occasion made them all feel as it they were "going off" under an anaesthetic. At this time they were busy with plans to get away in a boat of some kind, and made the most elaborate preparations by commandeering odds and ends from a deserted village to make sails, spears, and paddles for the DOat they hoped to obtain. When they reach-' I ed the sea, and looked on it for the first time in nearly four years, they did find two rowing boats, anchored in a creek. A vain attempt was made to

seize one of these by swimming out to it and letting the anchor-chain go, but there was a sentry close by and the experiments proved so noisy that after an hour's hard work in the water the two men who made the attempt gave it up. On the thirty-fifth day after their escape, and soon after the adventure with the anchored boat, they heard the sound

of a motor. A big launch, which they had previously seen and hankered after, came into view, flying a German and ft Turkish flag and towing a lighter containing over twenty Turks. As it was supposed that the launch would not be left empty it was decided that, the only course would be to risk betrayal, and bribe the crew of the launch, who appeared to be Greeks, to carry , the escapees away. When some of the crew came ashore, the prisoners hailed them, but though the strangers heard the call they refused to take any further notice, and for some strange reason appeared not to have reported the fact that they had been called to. That night four of the party swam off to. the launch, and to their surprise found it empty.- They rowed back in the dinghy belonging to the lighter, and the escapees went oft and boarded the launch, where they 1 found plenty of fuel for the engine, but • no food. In order not to arouse the sentry, the anchor chain was let go as quietly as possible, and the tug was then 1 towed out to sea with great labor. When

they were well off the shore they tried the engine, but as it burned paraffin and they could find no petrol for starting? purposes, it was a terrible labor to make it go. It would have been difficult enough for healthy •pien; and they were so weak they could hardly turn the engine at all. In fact, the attempt v;as given up and sails were extemporised for a time; but later the engine was started, and the tug went off in fine style The boat ran splendidly till the fuel ran out, and then they refilled

it from a cask on deck. This was apparently dirty, and from tliat time onwards the voyagers had, at short intervals to pro through the purgatory of starting the engine afresh whenever the feed pipe became clogged. Ultimately, however, Cyprus was reached, and the party's cruel adventure was practically at an end. Six of them, however, were several days in hospital before they reached England, and one nearly died of malaria, presumably caused by the bitea of mosquitoes on the Turkish coast. Th<> boat which was thus so sensationally used was called the Herthn, and was 38ft long, with a 50 horse-power engine. On board were two Mauser rifles, dated 1915, with ammunition, some of the bullets of which had had the nickel noses filed, off to make theni ■'mushroom"; a Verv's pistol and cartridges (which came in useful off Cyprus) and two lifeboats taken from English

ships. In a note to the published story is an extract from a letter from LieutenantColonel Keeling who says he met at Adana the Turkish Brigadier-General teddin Bev, who was in command on the eoast.' He said he was fully expecting the prisoners, and blamed the Turks who were in the lighter. The Germans of the party were all ashore. The loss of the motor-boat was discovered before dawn, and at dawn an aeroplane was sent out to look, for her; but she onlv spotted a small boat —presumably the dinghy, which had gone adrift.