DESTROYERS AT JUTLAND

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2961, 27 December 1916, Page 7

DESTROYERS AT JUTLAND

ifcCBfIPENDIUM OF GODLY DEEDS

in- -tho "Morning Po8t;"i) 'I .. . !A'b I said, we ■ yv.ill confine ourselves {to something quit© sano and simple ; iwljich does noil involve'more than half-la-dozen different reports. . 'When the German Fleet ran for ijioiae, on tie might of May 31, it soems tto have scattered—"starred," I believe, as the word for -the evolution—in a genteal _sauvo qui pent, while the Devil, Itvelily represented by our destroyers, iook the hindmost. Our flotillas were Strung out far and wide on this job. (One man compared it to hounds hunting half-aJnmdred separate foxes. _ A Quartet After Hun-Stuff. I taie the adventures of several Iconplo of destroyers who, Oil the night jof May 31, were nosing along somewhere towards the Sohleswig-Holstein coast, ready to ohop any Hun-Btuff coming book to earth by that particular soad. The leader of ono line was |Gehenn»j and the next two ships astern |of her were Eblis and Shaitan, in the lorder given. There were others,' of ioonree, but with tho exception of one Goblin, they don't no violently into .this tale.

There had_ been a good deal of pro--3ipscuons firing that evening, and aciiOM wore going on all round. Towards jrmdnight ouf destroyers were overtaken by. several three tuid four funnel German ships (cruisers, they thought) hurrying.home. At this:stage of the pmo anybody might have been anvibpdy—pursuer or pursued. The Germans took no .chances, but'switched on [their searchlights and opened fire on Gehenna. JETer Acting Sub-Lieutenant (reports: "A salvo hit us forward. I jopened fire with the after-guns." A shell then struck us in a steam-pipe, and I ponld see nothing hut steam. But both ptarboaTd torpedo tubes wore fired." Ebh'B, Gehenna's next astern, at once wed a torpedo at the second ship in the wernian line—a 'four-funnelled cruiser iand hit her between the second funnel and the mdlnmast, when' "sho appeared tw catch fire fore and .aft simultanepusly, heeled right over to starboard, fend undoubtedly sank." Eblis loosed off to sceond torpedo and turned aside to [reload, .firing at the same time to disItracfc the enemy's attention from iGeherma, who was now ablaze fore and jaft. Gehenna's Acting Sub-Lieutenant .(th&only executive officer who survived) tatty a, that by tho time the steam from Njhe broken pipe cleared he found Gehenna stopped, , nearly everybody amidships killed or wounded, the cart-ridge-boxes round the guns exploding lone after the other as the fires, took Jhwd, and the enemy not to be seen. (Three minutea or less did all that damage.- ... "Those Aft Noted." Eblis.' had nearly finished reloading /When n shot struck the davit that was Swinging her last torpedo into the tube, and wounded all hands concerned. jThereupon she dropped torpedo-work, Sired at an enemy searchlight which iwinked and went out, and was closing in to help Gehenna when she found herself under the noses of a conple of eneiny cruisers. "Tho nearer one," she Bays, "altered course tq ram mfjj apparently." The Senior Service writes in ouriously lawyer.-like fashion, but jthere is no denying that they act quite {directly.. "I, therefore, put my helm ihard aport, and i the two snips met and rammed each other, port bow to port how." ■There could have been no time to I .think, and, for ■ Eblis's commander on {the bridge, jiono to gather information. I : Bpt be had observant. subordinates, iand ■ he' • I would humbly' isuggest that the words be made tho ship's motto for evermore—ho writes: "Those afib noted" that the enemy cruiser had certain marks on her funnel and certain arrangements of derricks on each side, wluch, quito apart from the evidence she left behind her, (betrayed her class. Eblis and she met. Says EUis: "I consider I must have considerably damiwed this cruiser, as: twenty feet of her side plating was left in my fo'c'sle." . Twenty feet of ragged rivet-slinging steel, razoring •and. reaping- about in the : dark on a fo'c'sle that had collapsed like a con- ' tertina. It was very- fair plating, too. There were sido-scuttlajioles in it—what yre -passengers would call.'port-holes. Buit it "might have, been better, for Eblis reports sorrowfully, "by .- the' thickness of the coats of paint . (duly given in thirty-seoondths of the inch) sho -wouM-.not appear to have =bech a very-new ship.-" . Sgjv or old, the eneiny had done her OfS--- Shp had-, completely demolished f bus s bridge and Searchlight platform, ■brought down'the mast-and the forefunnel, ruined the whaler and . the dinghy, split the fo'c'sle open above -water fromftho stem to tie galley .whicli is abaft tlio bndgo, and below water had opened it up from the stem ■to'the second-bulkhead. She had further ripped off Eblis's skin plating for tin amazing number of yards on one side of her, and had fired a couple' of large calibre shells into Eblis at .pointblank range, narrowly missing her vitals.' _ Even so, Eblis is as impartial" as' a prize-court. She reports that the second shot, a trifle of eight inches, .'[may have been fired at a different time or just after colliding." But the night was yet young, and "just after setting clear of-this cruiser ail enemy ' v- i PWt. our stern at •j ap «^ d 'vi M(J ae<un -tlift-jwdematio.' mind: I .think sho must have intendted to ram up." She was a large threefunnelled thing, her centre funnel shot • ? wa v- and ' lights were flickering under her fo "as if sho was one fire!,forward." Fancy the vision of her. lmrt- .£ out of the'dark, red-lighted from within, and fleeing on like a man with his throat cut! The Enemy Bolted. ~'A S interlude all enemy cruisers ,tnat night wore not koen on ramming. Til 02' wanted to got homo. 'A man I 'know, who was on another part of tho drive, saw a covey bolt through . our destroyers, and had lust settled himself (for a shot at ono of them when the night threw up a second bird coming .down at full speed on his other beam He had bare timo to jink between thb [two as they whizzed past. One switched fan hor searchlight and fired a whole Isalvo at him point blank. Tho heavy :stuff wont between his funnels. She must have sighted along her own beam of light which was about a thousand •yards. "How did you.fed?" I asked. "I was ratlior sick. It was my ibest chance all that night, and I had lo miss it or be cut in two." "What happened to the cruisers?" ;0\ they went on, and I heard 'em oeing attended to-by some of our fellows. Thoy didn't know what -ifliey Were doing, or they couldn't have missed ma sitting, the way they did." After all that Eblis picked herself up &nd discovered that sho was still alive, and with a dog's chance of getting .to ■nort. But she did not bank on it. Tnst grand slam had wrecked the bridge, pinning tho commander under tho wreckage. By. the time he had Extricated himself he "conßidored it advisable to throw overboard tV sWI bhnst and (TispatcT»-bo>: of confidential' and secret books.V These are neverallowed to fall into strange hands, and their .proper disposal is tho last step But ono.in the ritii.i] of the burial sern'ra of His Majesty's ships at 'sea. ' Gehenna;, afire and sinking, out soma-

whoro'in tho dark, was going through it ori her own account. This is lier Acting- sub-Lieutenant's report:—"Tho confidential books were got up. Tho first lioutenant gave the order: 'Every man aft.' and ilio confidential books wore thrown overboard. The ship soon afterwards heeled over to staiboard and tlio bows went nuclei'. The First Lieutenant gave llio order: 'Everybody for themselves.' The ship sank in about a minute, the stern going straight up into the air."

But it was not written in tho Book ! of Fa to that stripped and battered Eblis should die that night as Gehenna died. After tne burial of the books it was found that the soveral fires on her wore manageable, that silo "wan not making water aft of tho damage," which moant two-thirds of her woro, moro or loss, in commission, and, best of all, that thrco boilers were usable, in spito of the cruiser'B sholls. So sho "shaped course and speed to make tho least water and the most progress towards land." T)n the way back tho wind shifted eight points without warning— it was this shift, if you remember, that so embarrassed Cripple and Paralytic on. their homeward crawl— and, what with one thing and another,' Eblis was unable to make port till tho scandalously late hour of noon on Juno 2, "the mutual ramming having occurred about 11.40 p.m. on May 31." She says, this timo without any legal reservation whatever: "I cannot speak too highly of the, courage, tisciplino, and devotion of the ship's company and the officers. ■ Masters of their Craft. Her recommendations are a Compendium of Godly Deed's for the Use of Mariners. They. covor pretty much all that man may be expected to do. There was, as there always is, .a First Lieutenant, who, while his commander was being, exfaicated from tho bridge wreckage, took charge of affairs and steered the ship first from the engineroom, or what remained of it, and'later from aft, and otherwise manoeuvred! as requisite, among doubtful bulkheads. In his leisure he "improvised means of signalling," and if there 'be not one joyous story behind that smooth sentence, I. am an Hun I They all improvised, like tho masters of craft they were. The 'chief engineroom artificer, after he had helped to put out fires, improvised stops to the gaps which were- left by tho carrying away of the forward funnel and mast. He got and kept up steam "to a much higher point than would have appeared at ail possible"; and when the sea rose, as it always does if you are in trouble, he "improvised pumping and drainage arrangements, thus allowing the ship to steam at a good speed on the whole." There could not have been more than Jorty feet of whole. The surgeon—a .probationer—performed an amputation single-handed in the wreckage by the bridge, and by his "wonderful skill, resource, and unceasing care and devotion undoubtedly saved the lives of the many seriously wounded men." That no horror might be lacking, there was "a short circuit among the bridge wreokage for a considerable time." The searchlight and wireless ivero tangled up together, and tho electricity leaked into everything. There.were also three wise men who saved'the ship whose names must not be forgotten.. They were Chief Engineroom Artificer Lee, Stoker. Petty Officer Gardiner, and Stoker Elvins. When tho funnel carried! away, it was touch and go whether the foremost boiler would! not explode. These three "put on respirators,. and kept the fans going till all fumes, etc., were cleared away." To each man, you will observe, his own particular Hell which he entered of his own particular initiative. Lastly, there were the two remaining quartermasters—mutinous • dogs, both of 'em —one wounded in the right hand, and,the other in the left, who 1 took the wheel ibetweon they all the way home, -thus improvising ono complete Navy-pattern quartermaster, and "re-fused-to'be relieved. during the whole thirty-six hours before the ship returned to port." So Eblis passos out of the picture with "never a moan or complaint from a single wounded man, and, in- spite of the rough weather of Julio 1, they all remained cheery." They.had ono Hun cruiser, torpedoed, to their credit, and strong evidence aboard that they had knocked the end out of another. •'I The -Shaitan's Tale. But Gehenna went down, and those of 'ner orew who remained hung on to tlhe; rafts that destroyers carry till thoy were picked up about the dawn by Shaitan, third! in the line, who, at that hour,. was in 110 shape to give much help, VHere is Shaitan's tale. She saw the: unknown cruisers overtake the flotilla,-saw their leader switch on searchlights and open firo as. she drew" abreast of. Gehenna, and at once fired a torpedo at the third German ship. Shaitan could! not see Eblis, her next ahead, for, as-we know, Eblis, after firing her. torpedoes, had hauled off to reload. When the enemy switched his off,'Shaitan hauled out, too. It is not wholesome for destroyers to keep on tho same course Tvithin a'thousand yards of big enemy cruisers. ' Sho picked up a destroyer of another division, Goblin, who for the moment had not been caught by the enemy's searchlights, and bad! profited by this decent obscurity to' fire a torpedo at ;the hindmost of the cruisers. Almost as Shaitan took station bohind Goblin, the latter was lighted, up by a largo ship and heavily firedi at. The enemy fled, but she left Goblin out of control,' with a grisly list of casualties and her helm jammed. Goblin swerved, returnedpand swerved l again; Shaitan, astern, tried to clear her, and the two fell aboard eSch other, Goblin's bows deep in Shaitan's fore bridge.

While they hung thus, an unknown d'estroyed rammed Shaitain aft cutting off several feet of hor stern and leaving her rudder jammed bard over. As complete a mess as the Personal Devil himself could have devised, and all duo to the merest accident of a few panicky salvos; presently the two ships worked clear in a smother of steam and oil, and went their several ways. Quito a while after she had parted l from Shaitan, Goblin discovered soveral of Shaitan's people, some of them wounded, on her own foc'sle, where thoy had beeii pitched by the collision. Goblin, working her way homeward ou such boilers as remained, carried on a one-gun fight at a few cable, distance with some enemy destroyers, who, not knowing what state she was in, sheered off after a few rounds. Shai-' tan, holed forward and opened up aft, came' across' tho survivors from Gehenna clinging to their raft and took thom aboard. Then some of our destroyers—they woro thick on the sea that night—tried to tow her stcrn-lirst, for Goblin h.'ul cut her up badly forward. But, since Shaitan lacked any stern and her rudder was iammed hard across whore tlio stern should have been, the hawsers parted, and, after leavo asked, of lawful authority, across all that wasto of waters, they sank Shaitan by gun-tiro, having first taken all the proper slops about the confidential books. Yet Shaitan had had her littlo crumb of comfort ero the end. While sho lay crippled she saw quito close to hor a Gorman cruiser that was trailing homeward in tho dawn, gradually heel over and sink.

This completes my version of tho various accounts of the four destroyers directly concerned for a few hours, on one mimilo section of one wine of our battle. Other ships witnessed othor aspects of tho ason.v, and duly noted them' as they went about their business. Ono of our battleships, for instance, made out by tho glare of burning Gehenna, that the supposod cruiser that Eblis torpedoed was a German bat-

tleship of a certain class. So Gehenna did not dio in vain, and we may tako it thait the discovery did not unduly depress Eblis's wounded iif hospital. Every Variety of Fight. Tho rest of tho flotilla 'thas the four destroyers beJoji2.r»l to had their own adventtires later. One of tlieui, clias- >»_ Qr being chased, saw Goblin out of control just before Goblin- and Sliaitau locked, and narrowly escapcd .adding herself to that triple collision. Another loosed a couple of torpedoes at tho enemy ships who woro attacking Gehenna, which, perhaps, accounts for tlio anxiety of tho eneiny to break away from that hornets' nest as soon as possible. Half a dozen or so of them ran into four German battleships, which they set about torpedoing at rantros varying from half a milo to a niilo and a- half. It was asking for trouble, and thoy got it; hut thoy had in return at least one big - ship, and the samo observant battleship of ours who identified Eblis's bird, reported thrco satisfactory explosions in half an hour, followed by a glaro that lit up all the sky. One of the flotilla, closing on what she thought was the smoke of a sistor in difficulties, found herself well in among the four battleships. "It was too late to got away," she says, so sho attacked, fired her torpedo, was caught up in the glare of a couple of searchlights, and pounded to pieces in five minutes, not even her rafts being left. She went down with her colours flying, having fought to tho last available gun.

Another destroyer who had borne a hand in Gehenna's trouble had her try at the four battleships, and got in a torpedo at eight hundred yards. Sho saw it explode, and a ship tako a heavy jist. ."Then I was' chased," which is not surprising. She picked up a friend who could only do twenty knots. They sighted several Hun destroyers, who fled from them; then dropped on to four Hun destroyers all together, who made great parade of commencing action, but soon afterwards ' 'thought better of it and turned away."

So you see, in that flotilla alone, there was overy variety of fight, from the ordered attacks of squadrons under control, to single ship affairs, every turii of which depended on the second's decision, of the men concerned ; enduranco, to the hopoless end; bluff and ounning; reckless advance and red-hot flight; clear vision and as much of blank bewilderment. as the Senior Service permits its children to indulge in. That is not much, Wlicg a destroycr who has been dodging enemy torpedoes and gun firo in the dark realises about midnight that she is "following ■ a strange British flotilla, having lost Bight of my own," she "decides to remain with them," and slia'res their fortunes and whatever language "is-going. If lost hounds could speak when they cast up. next day, after an unchecked nigbt -among 'the wild life of the dark, they would talk much as our destroyers do.