A GALLANT DEED

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2447, 28 April 1915, Page 5

A GALLANT DEED

PIRATE SUBMARINE RAMMED

CAPTAIN BELL'S STORY

Much attention was excited at the beginning of last month by the exploit of the collier Tliordis in sinking a. German submarine off Beachy Head. An official examination of the ship in dry dock, ordered' by the Admiralty, established the claimi that the submarine had been rammed and the captain and crew thereupon became entitled to rewards aggregating £1160. The account of the incident given by Captain John. William Bel],. of the Tliordis. is described bv a writer in. the London "Daily Telegraph" as one of the most astonishing stonei of _ British pluck-that have been related since the present war at sea opened.

"It is astonishing," he adds, for who would have believed /that a slow old collier could fight and sink a submarine? Or, indeed, that these formidable underwater craft should have been set at defiance by vessels wholly unarmed and undefended? Captain IVobert's recent exploit on the Laertes will be recalled to mind. Even more dashing is that of Captain Bell, whose narrative has engagnd the attention of the Admiralty authorities at Devonport.

"But Captain Bell's way of relating the occurrence which promises to make him famous is far from dashing. He speaks of his action in the most quiet and commonplace way imaginable. He is devoid of gesture. In fact, he might be listening to, rather than telling, his own story, and he might be apologising for what he did when he says that he thought he had better try to rara the pirate because she might have tried another shot:at him. And then he goes on to intimate that it was not any cleverness of his that sank the submarine, but the submarine's own carelessness and contemptuousncss 1

Torpedo Fired. "I encountered the submarine on Sunday morning, about eight or nine miles from Beacliy Head, off Newhaven," Captain Bell said.. "It was a ,clear, srniehiny morning, but a strong westerly wind was blowing, with heavy head teas, which lifted the boat a good deal. We were making about three knots an hour on a i flood tide, when, about 9.30, the second mate reported to me that ho thought he saw the periscope of a submarine on the starboard.

"I went on to the bridge and plainly saw the periscope with my own eyes. There was no ri&ed for glasses. It was about two ships' lengths away. Of course, I did not know but that it might be one of our submarines, but in case it was not I summoned all hands on deck, and told some of them to stand by the boats. I have a crew of twelve hands. "The submarine then crossed our bows, and took up a position about 30 or 40 yards on the port beanu A few minutes after that I saw the wake of a torpedo on the 1 starboard. All the crew saw it as well. It was like a long, feathery arrow. It was. clear that the submarine had fired at and missed us through tie lifting of the boat, and I said to myself, 'As silo's sure to have another Bhot, I'd. better try and ram lier; it's about the ouly chance.' "So I called out . to the man ?t the wheel: 'Hard a' starboard I' "A minute later—or it may have bean two or three minutes, for you don't think much about time when you see a thing is trying to sink you—w'e closed on the submarine. The t)OW6 of my ship and the periscope—which was all we could see—came nearer and nearer together, and I could have touched the periscope with my hand as'we went, over it if I had been on the deck.

"There were two distinct noises. Ono was like a slight crash, and then a scraping noise followed. We didn't see the periscope at all again, and some time after .there, was a quantity of oil on the water in the neighbourhood we had left behind. •

Submarine Sunk. "The crew were just lowering the port bo"at when we heard the crash. I had my eyes fixed on the periscope, and it .seemed to me to be of a reddish, greeny colour, like tarnished copper. As I say, i could have touched the thing as we passed over it. ■"I think we must have sunk the submarine, but I don't believe we got any damage. The engineer carried out an examination, and reported that we were not- leaking at all, and there ia no damage to the bows as far as can be seen. But a diver could easily ascertain if there's any damage below waterline when we get in.

"I can only attribute our escape to the fact that, owing to the heavy seas, we lifted at the moment the torpedo was discharged, so that it passed under us, and also that the submarine treated us with contempt, as it were, and never thought wo would be likely to turn and run her'down. This ship pitches pretty heavily in a rough sea, and that might ea6iiy account for the torpedo missing us, when it might strike a big vessel. 1 "But why the submarine did not dive or get out of the way when I headed her, of course 1 can't say. Maybe she started to do so too late. Our draught is, about 12ft. Gin. I don't know how long it takes a. submarine to operate her hydraulics, but maybe it takes mora than a minute or two to get below a depth of 12ft. or so. • Of course, although we don't move quickly, we are a tidy weight for giving a blow with 700 tons of coal on board,-and I don't suppose these submarine are much more than steel eggshells. .' "There was no signal at all from the submarine during the encounter, and we saw,no flag; nothing hut the periscope and the wake of a travelling torpedo. It was all over in a few minutes." • In response to what would seem a oross-examinatory query as to whether ho tfas "sure" it was a periscope which he saw, lie raised his brows, _ smiled forbearingly, and retorted, "You can ask the members of the crew also. They saw it as well as me. It was broad daylight—broad daylight."