SUBMARINE'S EXPLOIT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 28, 3 February 1915, Page 2

SUBMARINE'S EXPLOIT

SUBMERGED FOR NINE HOURS. What without any disparagement of th«! work of other oftVers engaged in the biime difficult and dangerous service may be fairly described as the most remarkable and daring submarine exploit of tha war, so far as it has gone, stands to the credit of Lieutenaiit-Oomniander Norman D. HolWook, of the submarine 811. •He took his boat half-way HP the Dardanelles, as feu as Nagara, where the straits are at their narrowest (incidentally diving under five rows, of min.es), torjuHoed a Turkish battleship, and got bafelv back, although he had at pne time to remain submerged for nine hours. . In connection with the exploit, the naval correspondent p( The Times writes : The most striking circumstance in' connection with this fine feat pf seamanship and courage is the negotiation of the mine-fields, live rows of ydiich Lieutenant Holbtook passed under in taking 81l to tho place where she found her quarry. The under-water navigation of the Dardanelles is made most perilous and difficult" by the swift currents which sweep through the straits, and," striking the various projecting points, are turned into eddies and whirlpools. Under bucli conditions to take the submarine, blind as she is, and feel a way along the bottom of the sea, evading the moorings of the mines, is a, task which few would care to attempt. Not only caution and daring, but nerves of steel are required in the successful commander of a sub* marine in such ciicumstances. This is not the first time our submarines have crept under hostile minefields. A similar feat in German waters was accomplished, as we know from the report of Commodors Keyea, i»ubli«hod in the Heligoland despatches. On one occasion submarine E6, Lieutenant-Cora mander C. P Talbpt, actually fouled the moorings of a mine and brought tha machine to the surface, where 'by the skill and daring of Lieutenant F A. P. Williams-Freeman and Able-Seaman B. Randall CremerJ it was successfully released and dropped without injury to the boat. The captain of the E6 was promoted to commander on Trafalgar p,ay, but he retains the command of his "vessel, while Lieutenant Williams-Freeman, the second in command, was deservedly awarded the D.S.Q. The last-named distinction was also conferred upon Lieu tenant-Commander Max K. Horton, who, with E9, tank the German, cruiser Hela and destroyed 5126, and wlio will now have to look to his laurels if the commanders of the much older boats in the Mediterranean flotilla show th'emseiv'ea ac enterprising as Lieutenant Solbrook.