SINKING OF THE HERMES

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 153, 26 December 1914, Page 2

SINKING OF THE HERMES

ENEMY SUBMARINE IN STRAITS OF DOVER. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.) LONDON, 11th November. It seems that the sinking of H.M.S. Hermes was witnessed from the coast of France. It is generally understood that the vessel was taking part in the naval attack on the German right wing, when an enemy submarine managed to get a torpedo home. The special correspondent of The Times says it was ft strange experience, strangely encountered: "Walking along the seashore with a friend, enjoying the bracing morning breeze which swept up the Straits of Dover, trying for the moment to forget the things of war and the horrors I had. seen in France — trying vainly, it is true, for the roar of the great guns at their deadly work farther up the coast was for ever in one's ears — I blundered into a tragedy of the sea. "The cruiser was well out from land, the shipping in the Straits was bathed in a delicate mist, and what I saw was with the unaided eye. My impressions, therefore, were vague and "elemental. I heard no great explosion when the torpedo found its target, although I saw a great x pillar of smoke shoot into the sky ; but, with guns firing— so in the distance it seemed to me — I saw the great vessel finally give herself up to the deep. It was a weird and moving spectacle, but the all-prevailing fact as she disappeared was the majesty of the sea. "The Hermes made a gallant struggle before she went down, her funnels belched forth volumes of coalblack smoke, and she even appeared to be moving slowly when her water line was far below the surface. People I met afterwards told me that they had seen the German submarine which did its work so effectively, going leisurely away. It is possible they may have done so, for the attack itself was, having regard to the locality, to say the least, audacious. But other craft in the Straits of Dover are equally fearless. VALUE OF DISCIPLINE. Fleet-Surgeon Mowatt was on board the Hermes. He was saved and returned to Dovereourt, whete he took part in an open-air recruiting meeting the following night. "Not many hours ago I was under gunfire off the coast," he said. "Guns, were going off the whole night long— big guns, httlo guns, popguns, all sorts of guns. At breakfast next morning we were all gathered round the table, and were just starting our meal, when an unpleasant Httlo incident occurred. Those brave fellows of ours ashore were all doing their duty, and we in the Navy were doing our level best, although we felt we were not doing much. ' "Our turn was coming, however, for almost, before we could tell what had happened, up went the table. Plates 'and everything else were smashed. We had been struck by a submarine's torpedo. Our breath was almost taken away. It was apparent that it was advisable for us at once to go on deck. For twenty years I have been in the Navy. lam not a brave man, and have never claimed to be one. My daughter some tiimi ago was discussing war with me, and I told her that I feared I should be afraid. She replied, 'No, you won't, father.' "When I got on deck it struck me at once, 'You are «n officer ; you are a. doctor; go to the sick bay. I went. There was one poor fellow in bed there. We got him out. He is saved. Returning, I came upon, a number of men with broken legs. I assisted these men and got them into a boat. I then told the captain that the men were all away from the after part of the ship, and I got into a boat too. This is what came of discipline."