A GALLANT CAPTAIN.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 March 1921, Page 9

A GALLANT CAPTAIN.

AN ADVENTUROUS CAREER. WORK IN ANTARCTICA. It was recently cabled that Captain Evans, of the British cruiser Carlisle, and a member of the Scott Antarctic Expedition, personally saved the lives of one hundred Chinamen, in tlie wreck of the Kong Moll. Heavy seas preventing the Carlisle’s boats reaching the wreck, Captain Evans swam with a line, afterwards diving repeatedly for sinking passengers. w Few men have had a more adventurous career than Captain Evans, now of H.M.S. Carlisle, who has many friends in Christchurch. He was Scott’s lieutenant in the ill-fated expedition of 1910, in which he would have accompanied Scott to the Pole but for the fact that he had to be sent back with the second supporting party, and he took the final leave of his Chief on January 23. Of that parting Scott wrote: “Teddy Evans is terribly disappointed, but has taken it very well, and behaved like a man. Poor old Crean wept, and even Lashly was affected. 1 was glad to find their sledge is a mere nothing to tnem, and thus no doubt they will make a quick journey baek.’’ An appendix to the volume describing Evan’s perilous return journey £ays : “Under average conditions, the return journey should have well fulfilled Scott’s cheery anticipations. Three-men teams have done excellently on previous sledging expeditions, whether in Discovery days or as recently as the midwinter visits to the Emperor penguins rookery, and the three in this party were seasoned travellers with a skilled navigator to lead them. But a blizzard held them up for three days before reaching the head of the glacier. They had to press on at speed. By the time they reached the foot of the glacier Lieutenant Evans developed symptoms of scurvy. His spring work of surveying and sledging out to Corner Camp and the manhauling with Lashly, across the Barrier after the breakdown of the motors, had been successfully accomplished ; this sequel to the Glacier and . Summit marches Iwas an unexpected blow. ‘ ' Withal he continued to pull while bearing the heavy strain of guiding the course. While the hauling power thus • grew the leader had to make up for loss of speed by lengthening the working hours. He put his watch on an hour. With the “turning out” signal thus advanced, the actual marching period reached twelve hours. The situation wals saved, and Evans flattered himself on his ingenuity. But the men knew it all the time, and no word said! At One Ton Camp he was unable to stand without the support of his skii sticks, but with the help of his comrades struggled on another fifty-three miles in four days. Then he could go no further. His companions, rejecting his suggestion that he should Be left in his sleeping-bag with a supply of provisions while they pressed on for help, “cached*’ everything that could be spared and pulled him on the sledge, with a devotion matching that of their captain years before, when he and Wilson brought their companion Shackleton, ill and helpless, safely home to the Discovery. Four days of this pulling, with a southerly wind to help, brought them to Corner Caipp. Then came a heavy snowfall ; the sledge could not travel. It was a critical moment. Next day Crean set out to tramp alone to Hut Point, thirty fou miles away. Lashly stayed to nurse Lieutenant Evans, and most certainly saved his life till help came. Crean reached Hut Point after an exhausting march of eighteen hours ; how the dog teams went to the rescue is told by Dr. Atkinson. At the Discovery hut Evans was unremittingly tended by Dr. Atkinson, and finally sent by sledge to the Terra Nova. It is good to record that both Lashly and Crean received the Albert Medal.

BRILLIANT NAVAL ACTION. Captain Evans was commander of the destroyer Broke in the brilliant action in which two British destroyers intercepted six German raiders that had got as far as Dover, and sank three and disabled a fourth. The official account at the time said : “The British destroyer leaders Swift and Broke, which were patrolling the Channel, sighted the enemy at 12.40 a.m., steaming at high speed. The night was calm and intensely dark. They were within 600 yards when first seen. Simultaneously the Germans opened fire. The Swift instantly replied. Commander Peck decided to ram the leading destroyer. The S'wift, with everyone assembled on the bridge, blinded by the flashes, drove down straight > on the enemy. She missed her prey, but traversed the line of enemies unscathed. Then she turned, hawk-like, upon her quarry, and while turnii j torpedoed another ooat. Again the Swift dashed at the leading enemy, which again eluded her, and without firing another shot went off at full speed in the darkness, the Swift pursuing. “In the meantime the Broke (Commander Evans) was steaming astern of the Swift, and on the latter altering her course to ram the leader of the Germans Broke torpedoed the second boat in the line and opened fire with every gun. Then, gathering speed for the blow, she swung to port and rammed the third German at full speed, striking her fair and square abreast of the after funnel. Thus locked the boats fought desperately in a hand to hand conflict. The Broke swept the enemy’s decks at point-blank range with -every gun from the main armaments to rifles and pistols. The remaining destroyers in the German line poured in a devastating fire on the Broke and the foremost gun crews were reduced form eighteen to six. Midshipman Gyles, in charge of the forecastle, though wounded in the eye, kept all the foremost guns in action, assisting the depleted crews to load. Meanwhile a number of frenzied Germans swarmed on the Broke’s forecastle from the rammed destroyer and rushed aft. Gyles, halfblinded by his blood, met the rush singlehanded with a revolver, which a German attempted to seize. Seaman Ingleson promptly bayoneted him and the remainder, except two, who feigned death, and were captured, were driven overboard. “The Broke, two minutes after ramming wrenched herself free from her sinking adversary, and attempted to ram the last boat in the line. She failed, but hit the latter’s consort on the stern with a torpedo. The Broke, hotly engaged witfc these two fleeing destroyers, followed tne Swift, .but a shell struck the Brake’s boiler-room, disabling the main . engines. The enemy vanished in the

darkness, but later the Broke torpedoed and sank another destroyer, and the German that had been rammed sank a little later. The Swift, using her searchlights, rescued the survivors.