MINED IN THE NORTH SEA.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 208, 31 August 1918, Page 15

MINED IN THE NORTH SEA.

VIVID WORD FICTURE. "The Secretary of the Admiralty reports that on the night of the —th, one of H.M. destroyers of an old type was mined. All officers and men, with one exception, were rescued. The next of kin have been informed."

It wasn't the sort of weather any sensible ship would have chosen for a pleasure trip in the North Sea (wriies John S. Margerlson In "The Irieta Weekly Mail"). As the sun went down the wind came up, and by the time darkness settled in the seas were ramping about ferociously, throwing the frail destroyer this way and that—rolling, pitching, and sometimes performing both actions with that queer corkscrewing motion beloved of light torpedo craft.

, Her crew, however, being quite used to this sort of thing—for in wartime one can't to be "a bit of a lop on"—didn't pay much attention to her motion; they simply lashed themselves into position at the londed guns and torpedo tubes to prevent the Keas washing them overboard, and carried on with their increased peering Into the night on the chance of spotting some dim shape moving where no dim shape ought to move.

And then, in a Hash of time, it happened. The little destroyer seemed to be lifted from the very face of the waters; her bows rose up and then crashed down with fearful force. Simultaneously a great roar blotted out the wind's sound; n vivid flash of flame tinging ruddlly a vast column of water rose in the air.

The commanding officer jumped to hie engine room telegraphs and swung them over to "Stop! ,, A petty ofllcer detached, himself from the foremost gun, and, crawlslanted towards the sea surface, tried to estimate the extent of the damage. At the same moment the watch of seamen off duty came pouring up the hatchway from below, declaring that the sea was strewing into their living quarters, that the interior of the forepart of the chip had fallen through with the torn out bottom, and that it was only a matter of minutes ere the ship sank.

The commanding officer decided to sec things for himself. When he arrived in the forepeak be found the water waist-high nnd rapidly getting higher. Then the ship lurched, and a wave came Into the damaged compartment, lifting mess tables and stools, bread barges and wooden ditty boxes on Its -swelling tide. Also there was another thing that bobbed with It—a horrible, headless, limbless thine In blood-streaked blue !«erge—the mine's first victim.

Yet, though his face was white and lin the commanding officer's voice as he reached the deck aud commenced lo shout putting overside the two small collapsible berthon boats stowed close to the berthing rails. Nor, though they could ferl the ship sinking beneath their feet, was there panic among the men who worked this derrick, their movements swift nnd precise and skilled with the skill of those who live ever with death at their elbow.

The stokers and cngincroom complement ebbed up from below and swnng the two whalers at the davits to the waves, manning them in silence, 6orrowftilly. Then, as the ,berthons dropped, as many mcv as could be crowded into the frail canvas boats ,ecrambled overside, and, dropping astern, hit'-hed their painters to the stems of the bigger boats.

stood waiting. Strong swimmers all, some lincl Riven up places Id the boats to less powerful brethren, preferring to trust to the Caley float* anil the chance of belnc shortly picked jip. Among them wns the I wireless operator, who, till the djniaixiu. stopped, had remained at his poet sending out the appeal for help. Presently they were joined by the commanding oOlcrr aii.l liU sub-lieutenant, and, in a body, trooped deck.

They had no means of launching it—it was merely a huge lifebuoy with a grating on which men could stand, waist deep in the numbing sees. Hopes hung down from it* sides, to which swimmers could sliug. and it whs of the non-collapsible type. They gathered together Inside It, and spoke in whisper*, waiting. The sea.i cominuvil to dash over the forecastle, and every second the angle of the destroyer's deck became more acute.

Presently the water reached the float and washed round the men's ankles; presently it rose to their knees as the ship sunk a little more and the cork filled float rose Then came a wave bigger than before, and lifted it bodily, sending it swirling helplessly away over tbe half-submerged bulwarks, reeling astern into the darkness.

And as it went its occupants shouted lustily that their comrades in the boat* might know they had left the sinking ship. They listened for an answer, but none came —the boats had been swept away into the night by the wind and tide, co the dozen ptalwarte commenced to sing, with the twofold purpose of keeping up their spirits and of attracting the attention of any passing vessel.

But all that night, right into the dawn of the next day, they were battered about, literally at the mercy of the waves, with the salt water surging waist high and occasionally leaping up into their faces—cold, wet. and utterly miserable, but still alive.

Ami then", in a vast hurry, raroc an armpil liner— a Rhip who had picked tip the boats, and been told of those left behind. A ragged cheer greeted her —and ten minutes later the Caley float having been emptied of its human cargo, was ewinglng at her davits, while down below her company ministered to the needs of the shipwrecked men, and pave them dry clothing from their own wardrobes.