“YOU SHINING BEAUTIES.”

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 9 August 1924, Page 13

“YOU SHINING BEAUTIES.”

NOT WOMEN, BUT FISH

TALES OF A TRAWLERMAN,

AUCKLAND, July 21. “Fishing’s a gamble—like backing horses. You look over the side as the trawl is being hauled in on a dark night. If you see nothing when the net is nearing; the surface, you know the net is split, or that there are precious few fish in it. But if you see coming up a ball of phosphorus you yell, ‘Rise and shine, you shining beauties !’ ”

Captain William Myroft, an old North Sea skipper who had charge cf trawlers during the ever-exciting period of the war, thus described the hauling in of the trawl when yarning to an Auckland Star man. The skioper thinks it a pity that Aucklanders arc not sufficiently appreciative of fish as a. food, but he holds that we would eat it more plentifully if it were brought right to our doors, and that there is much lacking in the system of supplv. Captain Myroft was the first man in the merchant marine to gain a. monetary reward from the Admiralty during the war. He was on a. ' trawling cruise when he sighted two German submarines. Immediately, he showed his stern to the enemy and made for the shore, where he reported his experience. Destroyers went out immediately to the locality. What happened to the submarines he was not told, but the result must have been satisfactory to the destroyers, for Captain Myroft was sent an Admiralty cheque, which he divided among the crew of his trawler.

A NICE GOOD FRIDAY • for the coast of Iceland, seeking fish, on one occasion, Captain Myroft left the company of a British patrol, with orders to steer a course around the North Rolinshore. It was clear weather, occasionally disturbed by light snow showers, lwenty-five miles away the skipper sighted a boat’s crew scurrying from another trawler—the Narboth Castle and sheered off his course to pick the men up. “There’s a sub. here,” said the skipper of the abandoned craft I guess that,” replied Captain Myroft. “You hop on board!” The crew r of the Narboth clambered up, hoisted their boat aboard, and the Nestor (Myroft’s ship) got under way again. But the Nestor had not gone far when the pferiscope of a submarine showed up astern, and a shot brought the trawler to. “This was Good Friday—ia nice day for fish.’’ The crew of the Nestor, with the rescued” crew of the other trawler then abandoned ship, and after the submarine had sunk the Nestor it went away to the westward. Captain Myroft was pleasantly surprised, for it was then the custom of the Germans to make prisoner the master of any vessel sunk, as proof of the proceeding- However, there was a reason for the departure of this submarine. It had sighted the smoke of some vessels and went to investigate. In the meantime, the trawler’s boats 1 discerned four British destroyers rushing along at great speed. The Nestor’s boat was being rowed, and her one miast, without sail, must have looked fike the periscope of a submarine, for all at once a shell from the leading destroyer passed between her and the other boat. Captain Myroft fixed a white muffler to a boat-hook and waved it. Then, with the destroyers rushing towards them' at the rate of forty-five knots, the trawlermen witnessed the spectacle of a periscope again arising from the sea—apparently the German returning to complete his job. • Simultaneously the leading destroyer fired, land before the submarine had submerged the racing hunters were upon it, dropping depth charges. The leading destroyer actually touched the submarine, and in the mind of Captain Myroft there was no doubt as to tho fato of the German. Depth charges did their jobs well. The crews of the trawlers were taken on board the destroyers and were landed on the coast of North Scotland on the following Sunday DEPTH CHARGES DID IT. Depth charges were the beginning of the. finish of the w#r,” 4eclares Captain Myroft. “Our destroyers got that clever that once they smelled a submarine it was the doom of that sub. The submarines .could not get away from them. The destroyers were equipped with instruments which could detect. a submarine under water and track it relentlessly. There was no escape for the sub. ; the destroyer was too fast. It got the underwater craft and dropped its depth charges. Then it was good-bye to the submarine. In the end German sailors refused to go out to certain death—they would not x , i nven . on board a submarine even at the point of the pistol. Yes, depth charges finished the war—you can put your hand to your cap to that!”