THE LOSS OF THE GOLIATH

Grey River Argus, 28 October 1915, Page 6

THE LOSS OF THE GOLIATH

A SURVIVOR'S ACCOUNT. The following account, written to a fellow officer by an officer of H.M.S.. Goliath, concerning- the sinking- of that vessel at the Dardanelles, has been placed at our disposal: — "You can easily imagine the solemn ity and sadness of the affair. At half-past i in the morning- I was awakened by an explosion. Jumpingout of my bunk and cabin I heard a second Jind third, the ship meanwhile listing quickly to starboard. Tn company with a stream of men, I went up nn .the quarterdeck, got up to the high side, and next minute, the ship being- on her side, clambered on to her side, got about as far as the net shelf when she turned over so quickly that I was thrown into the water. Down I went, and on coming- up looked for her, so as- to keep cleai\ but she, being- at anchor, the tide had already swept me away. The pronellers showed for a moment, then all was dark, and only the terrible cries of the men rent the silence.' "With a prayer to God that if it was pleasing 1 in His sight He would soften the final physical death struggle, I treaded water, took off -my trousers, and quietly- waited for the end: Soon, however, a small piece of woodfloated by, and another man and myself grasped it. It was 100 small -to support us alone, but gave assistance to our swimming-, and without a \vord to each other, we held on to" it. Then a third man swam up, grasped the wood, which at once went under and before I could realise what had happened, the* first man. a herb unknown to me, had let g-o the wood and struck off into the darkness, leaving 1 the third reran-, "and.- myself in possession of the wood. •'. "With no 'hope of life, I told this

man to strike out with me for the shore, but although we continued for some time, -I soon realised it was a hopeless struggle the tide setting us down all the time. Then, about a quarter of an hour at least after the Goliath had sunk, one of the battleships switched on a searchlight, then another one did, then the fleet blazed with searchlights, and almost at the same moment, the evolution was so smart, the sea swarmed with boats sent to our relief. I then tried to keep in the beam of one of the searchlights, but my strength was failing and T was- getting numbed with the cold, until at last I felt I must give up, and telling my companion, so, was -.lust letting go when he cried out: 'No no; you mustn't eive up." Inspired for the moment, 1 struggled feebly a bit more. Then 1 saw a cutter pulling- swiftly towards us. This inspired more strength, and T kept going till she suddenly starboarded and ivent away to our right. I felt this was my last earthly hope, so raising one arm, T shouted : 'Boat, ahoy,' my companion shouting also. They heard us and turned, and soon willing hands hauled us on board. We were taken on board the Lord Nelson, and after massaging, brandy, bpvril, etc. I slowly recovered, and that afternoon, being the senior Goliath officer on board, I had the snd duty of taking charge of 100 of the survivors (the other 60 were in other ships), and inarching them into position on the quarterdeck to join in the funeral scrvire of our paymaster and two men who had not survived the sinking."