Hampshire Survivor’s Story Fatal Change of Plan

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 36, 13 February 1939, Page 3

Hampshire Survivor’s Story Fatal Change of Plan

yyALTER CHARLES FARNDEN was a stoker aboard H.M.S. Hampshire, the armoured cruiser which, four days after the battle of Jutland, was detailed by the Admiralty to take Lord Kitchener to Russia to confer with the Tsar on the military sit /ation. But, in a raging storm off the Orkneys, on her way to Archangel, the Hampshire struck a mine and sank in less than fifteen minutes. Eight hundred officers and men, including Lord Kitchener and his staff, were drowned. There were only twelve survivors, of whom Farnden was one. A whistle blew; a flag waved, and a train slid importantly out of King’s Cross Station on the evening of June 4, 1916 writes Farnden in the Sydney Morning Herald. Seated in one of the four saloon coaches of the train —a special—was a khaki-clad figure, moustached and redtabbed. It was Lord Kitchener. With him were his secretary and personal friend, Lieut.-Colonel O. A. Fitzgerald, General Ellershaw, Mr. O’Beiren, of the Foreign Office, Sir H. F. Donaldson, and Mr. L. S. Robertson of the Ministry of Munitions, and Second-Lieutenant McPherson. In another coach was a clerk, a detective, and three servants. The party was on the first stage of its journey to Petrograd at the invitation of the Russian Emperor, who at th.'s critical stage of the war urgently wished to confer with our Secretary of State for War. As it sped along at 60 miles an hour or. its 700 miles’ journey to Thurso, irom where the sea voyage to Archangel—the only port of Russia in Europe open to our ships— w’as to begin, rain swept in great gusts against the window’s of the coach and the wind howled in a manner which foreboded a stormy passage for the mission. A Destroyer Waiting. At Thurso Admiralty instructions had been given for a destroyer to be in readiness to carry the distinguished 1 arty across the Pentland Firth to Scapa Flow, where H.M.S. Hampshire was waiting to complete the journey. The Hampshire was one of the fastest armoured cruisers of the British Navy, and. with the rest of the Grand Fleet, which had returned only three days before from Jutland, was lying at anchor in the famous war-time naval base. With the exception of the captain, v.e aboard the Hampshire had no knowledge of the nature of the “special mission” that Admiralty orders of the previous day had informed us that the Hampshire was to undertake. Neither the officers nor the men had any idea of the indentity of the “distinguished person” w’hom it was , rumoured was to be a passenger. So it w’as with eagerness that the 800 strong crew on that afternoon of June 5 awaited the coming of the pinnace from the Iron Duke, the Admiral of the Fleet's flagship aboard which the “distinguished person" had lunched with Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. Presently it was seen racing across the turbulent waters, and a thrill ran through the company as it recognised the tall military figure, seated in the stern, as that of Lord Kitchener, the personality known to every man. woman and child in the British Empire. A gale was blowing from the northeast and tremendous seas were running as, greeted by Captain Saville, the

Hampshire's captain, Lord Kitchener came up the gangway. But this did not deter the great soldier from carrying out his duty. Service to the nation ever came first A Fatal Change. There was one slight change in the original plans, which had been for the Hampshire to take the route to Archangel passing up the eastern side of the Orkneys, following the channel which 1 was regularly kept reasonably safe by minesweepers. « I Instead, as the result of a suggestion j by Admiral Sir John Jellicoe. in view I of the heavy weather, a last-minute decision to make use of the more sheltered route on the western side was made although this would probably tike slightly longer. Accordingly, having embarked the passengers, we weighed anchor and steamed towards Hoy Sound, the western exit from Scapa. Lord Kitchener and his staff retired to the captain's cabin. Soon we were rounding Stromness, and it was then that the Hampshire met the full force of the raging storm. Wind and rain were lashing the sea into a fury and all hatches excepting one had to be battened down. Two destroyers, the Unity and Victor, following in our wake as escorts, were ordered back by the Hampshire's captain because of the heavy seas. We had perhaps been going for an hour and a half, keeping as close to the rocky coast as was safe when above the roar of the storm, there sounded a deeper, more reverberating roar—the rear of an explosion. Soon afterwards the Hampshire listed alarmingly t: starboard and began to sink. Orders “Abandon ship” were given, and as the hatches were opened men peured up from below on to the deck and took up their positions at the boat stations. I was among them. There was no panic, but a great deal of confusion; shouted orders were lost in the howling wind and the booming seas. A Boat Smashed. It was soon found impossible to launch the boats; the derricks were electrically controlled and the current had failed. One boat which was got away by cutting its lashings was immediately caught by a tremendous wave and dashed to pieces against the Hampshire's side. Between fifty and sixty men were flung into the water. Men now began jumping overboard from the quarter-deck in their lifebelts ar.d life-saving waistcoats. Others were washed into the sea by the waves. All round the fast-sinking vessel men could be seen clutching pieces of I wreckage in frantic efforts to save I themselves. I Some were badly injured or scalded, tor a boiler had been burst by the force of the explosion. Now it was that resort was made to the Carley safety floats, which hold between fifty and sixty men. They resemble huge oval lifebelts. Their edges are filled with cork. They keep afloat in the heaviest seas. Round tLeir edges are rope handles which enable distressed seamen to hold on. Tc these floats is fitted an iron grating on which one stands waist deep in water. I helped to get Nos. 1 and 2 floats away and then myself took up my position on No. 3. A few minutes later, as those of us who had managed to scramble on to

No. 3 float were paddling frantically to get out of the way of the Hampshire, she gave a fearful kind of lurch and began to go down by the bows. It was a sight I shall never forget. Many of the crew when it had been found impossible to lower the boats, ' had remained in them as they hung from their davits, thinking that as the shipwent down under them the boats would float. Turned a Somersault. Instead, when the Hampshire gave a final plunge and, turning a somer- ; sault forwards, disappeared, she car- . ried down with her all the boats and i those in them. ! As the water closed over her we I realised that although we had, at least, , escaped that awful death, the float on which we were being flung hither j and thither seemed likely at any 1 moment to be smashed by the terrific j seas. i There were between thirty and forty I men on the circular rafe when the ship ! went down, but one by one they disl appeared. j The water was icy cold and many I died from sheer exhaustion from ex- | posure; others were washed away. ! All around us were floating bodies, i Other men were clinging to lifebelts I and pieces of wreckage and calling for i help. But it was impossible to rescue I them. In the distance we could see the ■ rocky Orkney coast, a black and jagged j ridge against the sky. An hour passed, two hours, and nearer and nearer to land the storm hurled us. Men were still dying in the agony of it all until there were but four of us left alive. Presently our raft was flung against the shore, and smashed, leaving us clinging to the rocks. Between me and the shore was a strip of calmer water, perhaps 12 feet wide, perhaps more. And I could not swim. But I somehow managed to get across it. I was saved. How I succeeded in climbing the face of that craggy shore with the sound of the storm beating below, I shall never know. But I eventually clawed my way to the top, bruised and bleeding. Crawled to a House. I remember little more, excepting the final effort to crawl towards a house that I could see 300 yards inland, and being met by kindly folk and given food and hot drinks and shelter. My companions, too, reached the top, and after a few days’ convalescence we went sent back to a hospital ship in j Scapa Flow. In all there were only 12 survivors I out of the entire crew. Besides Lord I Kitchener and his staff, all officers of the Hampshire perished. I That there was a deliberate plot to do away with Lord Kitchener has often been rumoured. It has been said that the Germans were aware of the projected voyage and sent the Hampshire to the bottom either with a torpedo fired from a submarine or by a mine purposely land in its course. In any case, the torpedo theory can at once be discounted, for no submarine could possibly have lived in such seas. And the deliberate mine theory, in my opinion, is untenable since no one, not even Lord Kitchener or the Hampshire's captain, knew until the last minute that the ship would take the western instead of the eastern route. Moreover, subsequent sweeping in the vicinity where the Hampshire went down accounted for twelve of the thirteen mines known to have been laid by the German submarine U. 175 as a preliminary to the operation of the enemy’s fleet at Jutland. The thirteenth sank the Hampshire.