STEAMER'S WAR SERVICE

Evening Star, Issue 18044, 11 August 1922, Page 6

STEAMER'S WAR SERVICE

CARRIES TROOPS AND OUNB.

VALUABLE CARGO FOR WHITE ARMY. -

THE TWICKENHAM'S RECORD. An interesting narrative of his war experiences was told to a ‘Star’ reporter this morning by Captain R. C. Graggs, of the British 'merchant steamer Twickenham, which arrived at Dunedin yesterday from Seychelles Islands and Bluff. The Twickenham has visited New Zealand on previous occasions. She discharged a cargo of hardwood at Auckland, Wellington, and Port Chalmers in 1913 from Bunbury (West Australia), and during tho coal strike in the early part of 1914 eho carried two cargoes of coal from Newcastle to New Zealand.

The Twickenham, Captain Graggs said, was engaged in transport work from September, 1914, to June, 1919. She made several voyages with troops and war material from Avonmouth to French ports, including Boulogne, Calais, and Dunkirk. Later she made two “voyages with war material from Avonmouth to Alexandria and Mudros. The vessel, like many other steamers, had several narrow escapes from being sunk by German submarines. Tho owners of the Twickenham lost_ sixteen steamers' by enemy action during tho war, from two of which not a man was saved, and few from any of them. Somo of the captains lost two ships. “We had ..a most exciting experience during the early part of the war, said Captain Graggs. ‘‘ We were carrying a shipment of London omnibuses from Dover to Dunkirk, and saw the periscope of a German submarine lying about five miles off Calais! We expected to receive a present in the form of a torpedo at any minute', but nothing happened. Tho submarine’s crew appeared to ignore my ship, and later we learned tho wTiy. This particular submarine was lying in wait for bigger fish. It had fired two torpedoes at" a British warship, but had missed its mark on both occasions. Tiro warship tried to sink tho submarine in return, but the German vessel dived and got away. The Twickenham wa-s later armed with heavy guns, from three pounders to eighteen pounders, and) we thereafter foil more secure from the attacks of the German under-water craft. “The omnibuses,” .continued Captain Craigs, “ were commandeered just as they stood on the, streets of London, and despatched in a great hurry to France. That was at tire time when the British Government was gathering up men and material after the retreat from Mons. The buses, with their glaring advertisement boards, were driven from London to Dover and shipped at once by the Twickenham. We loaded about fifty of them. The drivers were fairly astounded to sec such huge vehicles loaded into a ship, and I often have a laugh over their astonishment. I was watching them being lowered into the forward hold, when I heard one of the Cockney drivers make the following remark to one of his pals‘ Gorblimey, Charlie, I never thought there was a ship big enough to carry one of these bleeding buses of ours. ’Ere wo are with ’em loaded in the 'old, and running ’em round in the bottom of the ship under their own power! ’ ” Captain Craggs made a trip from Salonika to Odessa, in tho Black Sea, with war materials for the White army, shortly after the armistice. “Wo carried,” he said, “ a cargo of ammunition and guns valued at about £1,000.000. When the ship reached Odessa about 300 laborers were engaged to discharge her. A large number of these men were no doubt Bolsheviks, and in order to protect my ship from these people I appealed to the commander of a British warship then at Odessa. I pointed out to him that there was nothing to prevent any of these laborers from placing an infernal machine in one of the holds, and blowing the ship and her company sky high. The naval officer said that I could protect my own ship, surely, and did not favor my proposition for the services of a guard. I then said: ‘Very well, sir, if my ship goes up, then the whole town and your shin will be blown to h also.” That ‘ pur, the wind up him,’ and from then onwards until my ship was* discharged tlicro was a naval officer and a. squad ot marines on board the Twickenham day and night.”

The 'Twickenham lay at Odessa for live weeks. She subsequently went to Cardiff and loaded a cargo of coni for Bombay. From tho latter port she went to the Seychelles Islands, where she loaded over 5.000 tons of guano phosphates for Bluff, Dunedin, and Auckland.