H.M.S. PYRAMUS.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume VI, Issue 267, 27 October 1916, Page 2

H.M.S. PYRAMUS.

DURING TWO YEARS’ WAIL HER VOI’AGES AND EXPEDITIONS (Concluded.) The first section of this nunative appeared in the “Tribune’’ on October. ]7th, and the sworn! appeared on October 20th. The io.lowing carries the narrative up till August 25th. when the Pyramus was paid off, and the members of her crew were afforded tho opportunity of returning to their homes on a well-earned leave. We aro indebted to Third Writer Eric Magnusson, of the Pyrannis, for his courtesy in supplying this interesting account of his ship’s participation in the great war during the first two years of its progress. ACTION AT DILWAII.

On the 7th August the Pyrannis left Muscat- for Bushire. The heat was stifling at night, and the wind very hot. it being almost impossible to sleep. A. Muscat ten sheep were taken aboard to supply fresh meat for the crew. At this port three native bakers were added to the ship’s supernumeries. The temperature was between 110 dog. and 120 deg. in the shade, and all hands were dressed in white sing'ets and shorts.

On the 9th of August the Pyrannis arrived at Rishah. where the Dalhousie and Lawrence (R.I.M. boats) and H.M.S. Juno were in port. Owing to threatened trouble ou shore, marines from the Pyramus and several from the Juno, were landed. On the 10th, at 2 a.m., all the ships proceeded up the Gulf, and anchored at 7 a.m. at- Del war, except the Pyramus. which went to Reshire for stores, arriving at 4 p.m.. and leaving again for Dinvar at 8 p.m.. where she arrived at 12.30 p.m. on the 11 th August. It was then too rough to carry out projected landing party. SEVERAL CASUALTIES.

At 3.30 p.m. the Pyramus and Judo bombarded the coast line. On the 12th August a landing party was prepared for landing. leaving the ship at 10 a.m., hnt they found the surf too bad to effect a lauding. The Juno bombarded the enemy on shore. On August 13th, parties comprising bluejackets and marines from the warships and 300 of 96th Berar Infantry (an Indian regi- ; merit) from H.M.S. Lawrence, were j scut ashore. The ships bombarded the ; shore to cover the landing. Several ' casualties occurred whilst the landing was being effected, five of which in- ! chided men from tho Pyramus. One, a stoker named Foord, was killed outright by a bullet through his head. Soper, A. 8., a New Zealander, was i slightly wounded in the mouth. Bene- ’ with. A. 8., was shot behind the ear; Mockler, A. 8., was shot through the shoulder, and Private Higginson was wounded in the shoulder. The wounded men who have since recovered, were brought aboard the Pyramus. As soon as the first men jumped out of the boats and started to wade ashore, the enemy retired, leaving one fatally ; wounded man on the beach. THE ENEMY'SHELLED. I As the enemy retired they were shelled by the Pyramus and Juno, and it is thought they suffered severe loss, although no killed could be found. It appears thev carried away their dead and wounded, to hide their casualties from the British. At 5 p.m. a party was landed with seven days’ stores. They found the landing forced strongly entrenched about 200 yards from highwater mark. Only a small quantity of water had then come ashore, and sentries were placed over that with fixed bayonets. Nothing occurred during the night. The men had to sleep in the trenches and the water ’ oozed up through the sand, making sleep impossible. On 14th August, at 3 a.m., the attacking party moved off, leaving about 70 men to defend the base. They had a rough time of it, and about 7 a.m. they were all back again, having failed to reach the village of Dilwar. The enemy had mustered in force, and several seamen and marines from the Juno were wounded. Some Indians were also wounded. The commander of the Juno was seriously wounded, and as the stretcher party was bearing him back to the base a salvo of 6in. Ivddite from the Juuo burst 30 yards away. The commander died shortly after he , was brought in. One of the Pyramus’ marines was caught in tho fumes of the I lyddite shells but although they almost overcame him and he fell, with dogged persevereuce he struggled back to the base, where he soon recovered. During the day the enemy became very bold, and were mustering very strongly on bot?i sides of the base. One or two I shots fell inside the entrenchments but Ino one was hurt. An attack was prepared during the night, but the enemy having a respectful regard for the British, retired. The wounded and dead were sent off to the Pyramus within an hour of the engagement, which speaks well for the medical staff at the base. Four of the Juno’s party were sent aboard suffering from heatstroke. OBJECT ACCOMPLISHED.

On August 15th, at 3 a.m., the attacking force moved off again, this time leaving about 40 men at the base. At daylight the first charge of guncotton was fired taking a lot of village wall with it. Further explosions occurred at intervals. Whilst this was proceeding the enemy was preparing to receive the party when evacuating the village, and as they retired the langistanis poured a heavy crossfire into them, wounding several but fortunately the Pyramus men escaped. They all retired to the base by 7 a.m. and they were served with Tiot tea. coffee and cocoa which they enjoyed immensely. As the object had been accomp.ished. the men got ready to re-embark. AN OFFICER’S TRIBUTE.

Major Wintle, the military officer in charge, went round the camp asking how the lads were getting on and if they were enjoying themselves. He told the boys from tho Pyramus that they were splendid and hoped to command them again at some future date. The re-embarkation was carried out at night without any further casualties, and by 4 a.m. on the 16th August, all hands were safely aboard, the last men to leave the trenches being five of the iPyramus boys.. The total casualties were 13 killed and 35 wounded. A CHEIK’S VISIT. On 16th August the Pyramus left for Bushire, and on the 17th she left the latter place for the Bahrein Islands, arriving on the 18th. Major Keyes, political agent, came aboard, and on the 19th the Pyramus arrived at Doha, where Major Yeyes and Commander Kelburn went ashore to get the Sheik of Quatar to visit the ship. Ho came off with his retinue. The Sheik’s party was shown around the ship and appeared to be very interested in what they saw. They could not understand the electric light, and for some time they amused themselves by switching it on and off. An agreement was made with the Sheik to get the Turkish garrison to evacuate Bida Fort. On the 20th a party landed and visited the fort, which was found to be deserted, the Turks having fled during the night. Three guns, a fair number of rifles, 120

cases of ammunition and stores of all descriptions were captured.

PYRAMUS AGROUND

The Pyramus left for Bushire at 4 p.m. Ou August 21st. at 6.30 p.m., she rqn aground in Paband Bay, but at 9 a.m. next morning was hauled off again and proceeded undamaged on her voyage. A heavy sandstorm was experienced, and the temperature was well over 120 deg. in the sha_de. On August 22nd the Pyramus arrived at Rishah, and on the following day left for Bushire, about 8 miles away. A FORCED RETIREMENT.

On the 29th August the Pyramus left Bushire and arived off Matimari village. The Bushire Residency launch “Edward Ross’’ came with the Pyramus, P< O. Dalton in charge. A 3pounder had been mounted on her bows during the stay at Bushire, and when the ship anchored the Edward Ross took a cutter and whaler in tow with an armed party and Maxim to force a landing and break up the Tangistaui dhows which had been hauled up 200 or 300 yards inland. When the boats drew* near the beach the position was bombarded by the ship’s 4in. guns, and two dhows, anchored off the beach, were fired on and damaged. The party landed safely, but as soon as they topped the sandy ridge, about 50 yards from the beach, they were heavily fired on by the Tangistanis, who had cleverly concealed themselves round about the dhows which our men had landed to destroy. The men dropped down and returned the fire but as reinforcements were coming down on camels from the village about a mile away, the position became serious-, and they were forced to retire on the boats. The retirement was effected without a casualty, although a hot- fire was kept up by the enemy, and the boats were hit in several places. The boats returned to the ships, which were still firing their 4-inch guns. It was a long range, but- the dhows inland were damaged before “cease fire” was sounded. The enemy were reported to have had slight loss. A HOT ENGAGEMENT.

After this nothing of note occurred until Bth September, when the Tangastani tribo were reported to be gathering for an attack on Bushire. At 4 p.m. a landing party left the ship and took up quarters ashore for the night. On tho 9th, the threatened trouble Hothaving developed, the men were turned out for exercise at 4 a.m., and after a stiff two hours at field exercise, returned to their quarters for breakfast. They were just going to fall to when a rider came galloping in with a message from the General Officer Commanding to the" effect that the Pyramus party was wanted at Bushire at ouce, the Tangistaui having attacked at dawn. The party fell in at once and, without waiting for breakfast, moved off in the direction of the village. By this time the sun was mercilessly beating down on the. dry desert sand, and when the men reached the battlefield several had drooped with heatstroke. The enemy, well concealed, poured in a hot fire on our troops. The Pyramus party was ordered to take lip a position which necessitated charging about 400 yards across an open stretch of sand.

THE ENEMY DEFEATED. Before the position on the other side was reached one man was killed and one officer and three men were wounded. The heat was terrib.©, and two hours later one of the wounded men died. The position taken up was a sort of blockhouse built with mud and surrounded by wire entanglements, but there was scarcely any shelter and the enemy’s fire was thick and fast. Things began to get so seriosu that the General Officer Commanding ordered the Bengal Lancers to charge from the side and th© Ghurkas from the front, to take th© strain off tho Pyramus men. It was a magnificent spectacle to see the Lancers tearing along with the English officers well to the fore. They rode through and through the Tangistani who broke cover and ran. Th© Ghurkas drove them out of their cover and the Lancers chased them across the p.ain. Many prisoners were taken and the remainder of the enemy were put to flight. Next morning the men re-embarked after having again been highly praised for their work. Commander th© Rt. Hou. the Earl of Glasgow’ (H.M.S. Pyramus) was invested with the D.S.O. and two men (Sergeant Wall, R.M.L.1., and Able Seamen Beauchamp) for work performed during the landing and the attack on the village. ~ “HOME, SWEET HOME.” This was the last action worthy of mention although there were numerous other small expeditions w’hich took p.ace later on. From this date on th© ship was doing patrol work up and down th© Gulf, which was very tedious and monotonous work especially as the climate was so hot, and nobody was soitv when orders were received to pav off at ——■ on 25th August, 1916, and that all hands wdre at liberty, to proceed to “Home, Sweet Boms.” As is now ivell known, 60 liberty men from the Pyramus, including two Hastings boys, are now’ in New Zealand.