FOR OUR BOYS & GIRLS

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 156, 4 July 1896, Page 3 (Supplement)

FOR OUR BOYS & GIRLS

Bombarding Alexandra. A Boy's Exciting Experience a» that Time.

By J. W. Morgan.

During the summer of 18821 was ierring on board H. M. Turret's ship Monarch, in fche Mediterranean. We had been on epeoial duty, escorting the young Princes Alborb Victor and George of Wales round the Holy Land, and to Piraeus, and were on our way to rejoin the fioeb at Corfu, when wa received our first intimation that) there was trouble in Egypt, and of the beginning of thab series of events which led up to the bombardment of Alexandria, and afterwards to the occupancy of Egypb by the British. . .

We had passed Cape Matapan and Cape Galo, and had jusb sighted the Sbrofadhia Islands, when, greably bo every one's surprise, the fleet hove in sight from behind them. The flagship signalled to us to take up our placo with the fleet, so we turned about, fell in line, and proceeded with ib to Suda Bay, Candia (or Crete). After waiting there very impatiently for a few days, we received orders one evening to proceed to Alexandria, with all possible despatch. •

. Then the fun and excitement commenced. We could not tell jueb what bad h»ppenod while we were ab sea, nor eren if we would be allowed to enter the harbour, so took the precaution to load all the guns. Wo had cut the telegraph cable, anchored an end of it on a ship, and were in constant communication with London. Finally a decision wa« reached in Downine street), an ultimatum was sent to Arabi, and notice served on nil the foreign men-of-war to quib. the sceno. The notice waa senb round during the night, and in the morning they all lofb, oar bands playing their national hymns and theira ours. Uncle Sam's boaba wero the laab bo leave, and they came close by us and had all hands on deck and in the rigging, waving their hata and cheering us as fehey sbeamod slowly by, leaving us to our work. We had been very chummy with them, and they seemed quite reluotanb to go. We were moored to a buoy in the inner harbour, right under one of the heaviest of the Egyptian forts for several weeks, and had been looking into the muzzles of the loaded guns with Arabia threat hanging over us that ab the firsb intimation of hostilities he would blow us out of the water. Bub on bhe night before bhe bombardment} we pub oub all lighb3 on the ship, slipped from the buoy and took up a more favourable position. All hands were roused oub at 3 o'clock the next morning, and the hammocks wore stowed aboub the small boat? and othur exposed woodwork, to prevent the splinters flying, a thing to bomo'b carefully guurdod againeb during m naral engagement.', > The guns were manned ab about 5 o'clock, and from then on until the firing commenced the gun's crews were all in a state of intouee suppressed excitement. : A boab load of Egyptian and Turkish officer?, among them Derrisch Pashn, came off to the Admiral for an interview soon after 6 o'clock, bub nothing came of it, and at 7 o'clock a blank shot was fired from H.M.h. Penelope, a signal which notified friomis and foes alike .that negobmiofts were afc hii end. At five minutes after 7 the signal 'commence firing' was run up at tbo flagship by Admiral Sir Beaucbamp Seymour, and long before the signal had reached tho masthead nearly every gun in tho floet had spoken. Tho noise waa berrific, and the contrast to the previous breathlc«B silence wa« appalling. The other fellows were ab it, too,.and' hundreds of guns irom forts and batteries were replying to ours. : The din vat indescribable, our guns n'ring,sheHs bursting, the forts replying, and sbob and shell striking the ship and making a daafening sound inside the iron walls thab was simply awful.

There was no sound of the human voice, no shouting, no words of command—everything dono by signal ab the guns. Ib was a magnificent) sight, most of the firing being done ats from 500 to 1,500 yards, bo that both sides could be eoen at a glance. At about) 8 o'clock a shell from one of our bow guns exploded a magazina in Forb Meka, and later on RhaHelbin Palace wna fired by a small shell from the Inflexible. The Invincible and the "Monarch engaged Fort Meka for vome time at very close range, with the Inflexiblo and Superb doing some long-dirttanco firing and dropping those enormous 1,800 pound ehella in from m mile or so down the coast. Forb Meka just at that time rcusb have been a very uncomfortable place. I caughb a glimpse of ib onea a« the smoke lifted and it seemed a veritable inferno; the flash of their own guns through the emoke, the flash of onr ehe!l3 bursting, and the dense smoke over all, it seemed imposaible that any living thing could be there. And yeb there were two guns bhftb hold out obstinately long alter all the others had been silenced, and. flnally th^ Condor, a gnuboat of light draught, Captain Lord Charlea Bereefbrrf. ran closo in and silencod them, and was cheered by the whole fleeb for her-plucky bohaviour, fche Admiral sending up .the signal, ' Woll done, Condor. 1 Tha weather was. excessively hot, with noli a breach of air stirring, and we had to keep constantly on the move to get away from our own emoke. Inside the turrets and on tho gun decks the air wa3 at times vory thick, particularly nearest the muzzles of the gun», only the arms of the loading .numbers appearing, thrush through the smoke, to roceive tho cartridges.

During fche afternoon I temporarily relieved the captain of a wonderful gun, who had been overcome by the hsab, and as these guns wore mounted on the upper deck, I had an uninterrupted view of the whole engagement. Thab panorama Ishall never forgeb. 1 could even trace the flight of the shells from my own ship's guns, u«e them strike and bursb. I moat aWo cinim thab I saw shells leave the guns themselves while the Invincible was lying close astorn of us at Ferb Meks. I hare aiDce heard it said this is an impossibility, bub when I paw what I flb first thoughb was fehe shall leaving the muzzle, my curiosity was aroused, and I watched and saw ib ro pestmdly' afberward, in the form of a dark shadow right in the centre of the flash. p

Most of the forts had been silencod by 5.30 that nighti and ab about th»b tfmo we ceased firing and signalled the total number of killed and wounded in tho fleet to the flagship. The men had nob left the gnKB oinco fchoy had manned them in the moraine, and the cooks now set about preparnss a meal. During the day the cooks and ftH other ' aon-combatanbs had 'baeD omploycd hoisting powder and shell from the magazines. The ship's band had beer, pressed into service as an ambulance eorp*. under the direction of the doctors, and bad also been kept busy carrying oatmeal wafer and lime juice to tbeguna'crewa. That night we congregated in groups and diacueeed the exciting events of the day over our pipea and watched the burning of Alexandria, which

bad been fired by the rebels. Ab eight the next morning bhe Condor went round the flaeb, all flags ab half-mast, collected the dead, and took them oub.to sea and buried them. Firing was resumed, bub was nob replied to very spiritedly, and finally a flag of truce was sent over from Forb Kbaseltin, under cover of which, as ib afterward transpired, Arabi burned and pillaged the town. The gunboat Bittern answered the signal and proceeded inside tho harbour, hoisting the wardroom tablecloth as a flag of, truce in the absence of the correct article. On fche third day, after firing a few ehoba withoub any return, we landed a naval brigade.

Seventy tona of iron, in etaells, was fired from the gun I commanded on the firsb day.