WITH THE GRAND FLEET

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2670, 17 January 1916, Page 6

WITH THE GRAND FLEET

WORK OF THE CRUISER PATROL AND H.M.A.S; AUSTRALIA (By L, Cope Cornford in the "Morning Post.") The Australian and New Zealand troops in the Gallipoli Peninsula Lava won a reputation second to none. His Majesty's Australian ship Australia, battle-cruiser, is now with .tlie Grand Fleet, the flagship of Rear-Admiral William C. Pakenham, C.8., M.V.O. She has joined the Fleet by arrangement between the two Governments of Great Britain and tlie Commonwealth. Her officers are lent to the Australian Government for a period of years. Her men aro nearly all Australians. To H.M.A.S. Australia, Captain Stephen H. Radcliffe, flagship of Ilear-Ad-miral Sir Gcroge E. Patey, K.C V 0 according to the Navy List of July! 1914), and the rest of the Australian Navy are due the holding of the other end. of the Pacific trade-routes at the beginning of tho war. That achievement demonstrated once for all (let us hope) the necessity of guarding the trade routes at both onds, instead of relying upon a reserve force of cruisers stationed in the Home ports. The exploits of the Ernden, Captain von Mulfor, and of tho other German cruisers i cj a u °ostly lesson! H.M.A.S. Sydney destroyed tho Ernden. , Australian Navy, alone among the colonial naval forces, showed what ought to be done.

Oil board the Australia, the present writer learned incidentally that the Gej man landing party from the Ernden, which destroyed the telegraphic apparatus in the Cocos-Keeling Islands, made good their escape. They had bidden a cordial farewell to the Cable and Telegraph Staff, and had pushed off, when they beheld tho Emden putting to sea to engage the Sydney. Tho landing party ..instantly returned to the island requisitioned stores, and took the Ayeslia, the yacht belonging to' Mr Uunies-Ross, owner of the island's, and so hoisted sail and departed. Presumably, as the wind set that way, they fetched up in the Dutch East Indies, incse Germans had shown courtesy and consideration; • and no one grudges them their escape. • e i\ e and others, one learned 2,, ™ bare white ward-room of il.il.A.S. Australia, where also more ghosts began to appear. There rose the phantom of H.M.S. Cresset (which was not her name); the little ship in which (long ago) her dogged commander a taut hand, as they say—accomplished one of the greatest voyages of Hag-, hsh naval history,, and then left the ? avy i , ~ 0 ' ias s * nc e returned, and is now fighting.: an occupation for which a. just Providence especially designed ffi ? ere ' to °' is ghost of the officer who was superintending the chippmg of the rust from ffib plates of Mie Cresset when the carpenter chipped through them into the sea. H.M.A.S. Australia, after her many adventures, and deeds in the Pacific, during which she achieved records in steaming, and of which the brave story is still to tell, came north to join the JUeet; and here she is, a piece of Australia, armed and alert, afloat in the northern sea. What of her men? They bring with them the spirit of Australia, which would seem to be compounded of high confidence, independence, coolness sense, hardihood, and reckless courage! It used to be said that Australians would never take on naval discipline. But they have taken it on; with a difference. The difference does not extend to essentials. Discipline is a subjcct of a delicacy so fragile that It can only, i as'jt were, be indicated frith a gesture. I lou may look, but you. must not touch. But it may be said that discipline is roncc-ived with a single purpose; and so long as that purpose is ' achieved methods must vary as the men vary. The scale run 6 from flogging a delinquent through the Fleet in eighteen-himdred-and-war-timo, to a verbal admonition in ninetoen-fifteen-and-war-tlm<s. If every , man was perfect, he Would impose his own discipline upon himself. Therefore the better the typo of man, the higher tho discipline and the less penalties inflicted. The Australian sailors are a good class of society; more it would be impertinent to say. But the kind of condition may be inferred from the circumstances that the parents of a. seaman, what time the ship was refitting, sent a sum of money to the captain, asking him to expend it in the interval upon their son's education. The Australian rate of pay is higher than the English rate. Part of it is deferred for pension ; but the balance amounts fo a higher rate, than the English, naval seaman receives. Probably the separation allowance of the English seaman—and the Government never did a Letter thing in their lives than the granting of separation allowances—goes to square the discrepancy. The presence of H.M.A.S. Australia with the main Fleet incidentally exemplifies how complete is the abolition of *■

f the German flag. Peace reigns upon the broad Pacific; were it otherwise the Australia would be down South. Tho Commonwealth has done greatly. Tho generations of her exotic, stormy, and wilful history have flowered in the storm into those magnificent regiments, into this tall ship manned by the native-born lo Australia! H.M.A.S. Australia sinks away into ; the wrack and rain, as the torpedo-boat recedes, and passes to tho ranks of light [ cruisers. A squadron has hut now re--3 turned from a cruise, sea-stained, their . tunnels crusted with salt. Returned ; from shoving at 30 many knots against j a head-sea, ihreo days and nights on end, during which time the captains , remained on the bridge, and the ships' ■ vm' S wcre vory down below, j What are the cruisers doing ? The Ad- , miral knows, and that is enough. • n°i tllo re 6 uljlr cruiser squadrons aro . added the armed auxiliary cruiser patrols, which keep the sea. for throe consecutive . weeks without touching the ■ ? ii" are tlj eso doing? It can hardly bo indiscreet to say that they tiro exercising what is incorrectly called J the blockade of. the enemy, but, which ■ ls 5, ,0' the right of search. Tho , method is broadly as" follows: When a Blnp is sighted, tho patrol cruiser bears . down upon her, signals orders to her j to stop, and sends a visiting officer . on board her. to exainino her papers. • ine work is always arduous and often . dangerous. Tho boat'must be got away, however high the sea. and somehow or other the visiting officer must get cn ' ~,, , t ? e 6lii P a neutral flag. ' ihat ship, whatever flag she flies, may be, and often is, German owned. There ; havo been times when the visiting officer has leaped from the boat, borne up on the crest of a wave, upon the deck of the ship. There have been times when tho whole boat has been washed on. hoard the ship, and tlie men have ' disembarked without mishap. Then, il the visiting officer, upon examination of the ship s papers, finds reason for'sending the vessel ; into port for adjudication by the Prize Court, a prize crew, under command of an officer, must be transhipped from tho patrol cruiser tc the neutral. The prize officer then takctf tho ship into port; and the patrol cruiser proceeds upon her boat. Yotf are to conceive this process occurring with variations many hundreds of dnring the past fifteen mouths in several wide sea areas, without the least intermission. It is part -of the routine of the Fleet rn war; and it is carried into .execution with the help of a large contingent of tho officers and men of the merchant sendee enlisted for the purpose. Here, again, nothing moro explicit than a general indication of the business is permissible. Tlie cruiser patrol .is a part of the Grand Fleet which is out-of sight. The Grand Fleet is the regular army; the cruiser patrols ' are tho policemen. They have no times for recreation on shore. They fall into harhovir when and where they can, for just so long as it may take to fit the ship for ski and then they sail once more. But there are brief periods when offi.cers and men of a part of tho Grand Fleet may land for a few hours and walk on tho firm earth, and shoot across it on motor-bicycles, and play football. There is no leave, save fn exceptional cases for a very short time. . Here is a pendant to tho harsh sear pictures of the Fleet in northern waters. It lies quiescent within sight of the low hills, golden and fading into blue. Tha great ships, gleaming in the sun and darkening in the shadow, merge one' beyond another into the coloured an. tumn haze. . Nearer hand the black destroyers are graven on the steelbright water as though carved in coal, and now. and again they are slashed with white, as a seagull stoops to tho set. Along the waterway between'the ranked ships glides a string of boats laden with men, and towed by a picket* boat towards the jetty. A grey old. village, moulders along the shore; its silence is suddenly brokea b/ the clash of marching music and the tramp of marching men. The band of the Royal Marines heads a party o£ bluejackets; alongside marches a lieutenant; in the rear come three or four, midshipmen, wearing an expression of patient boredom. The weathered, impassive faces of the men express tha single determination to go on putting Dne foot before the other as requisite • Rnote-marching must be done. From rou"" , a sounds at intervals, lhero other parties are playing football. Presently you shall see them swinging down .to tho jetty to take boat again. By this time the dying sunlight is veiled' in blue vapour, whose long-drawn films creep upon the still water. A last ray of snnset touches the brass funnel of the waiting picket-boat to gold, which: gleams like a sunken coin in tho shadow beneath the boat. Silently the boats put off and glide awav towards the dim ships. A singlo figuro remains upon the jetty. That unconscious Royal Marine, who is only a' Ship's postman waiting for the mail, m3y stand for the figure of vigilance typifying the sentinel of England.' ' which is the Fleet. ; And yonder, slipping lightless through the dusk, a cruiser steers seaward, and "mother, and another.