RUDYARD KIPLING

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17206, 28 June 1916, Page 7

RUDYARD KIPLING

CN THE NAVY.

'Copyright. 1916, by/Rudyard Kipling.)

By Telegraph— Press Aesoeia’ion— Copyright.

LONDON, Juno 27

The third article by Mr Rudyard Kipling continues to tell of the adventures of submarines in the Sen of Mar more, and includes a detailed descrip tion of El2’s (Commander Bruce) cut-ting-out affair. “ Her main motors gave trouble, and she was crippled most of the trip, ’ says Mr Kipling. “She sighted two small steamers, one towing two, and the other three sailers. She stopp'd the lirst steamer and noticed that the boat carried stores, while the crew were an on deck with lifebelts. Not seeing any gun, El2 ran alongside and told the First Lieutenant to board the steamer. Then someone on the boat threw a bomb at El2, which struck, but did not explode, and the steamer people opened fire on the boarding party with rifles and a concealed one-incher. El2 answered with her six-pounders and also rifles. The two sailers in tow tried to foul El2’s propellers, and also fired rifles. The First Lieutenant and the boarding party were engaged on the steamer, and El2 was foul of a steamer and was being fouled by the sailers The six-pounders were methodically perforating the steamer from bow to etera, and the steamer s oneincher and the sailing ship s rifles woie raking everything and everybody else. El2’s coxswain ’on the cpnning-towor passed the ammunition uj>. His vessel’s one workable motor was developing slight defects at the moment when power to manoeuvre was vital. The story is almost as difficult to disentangle as the aotual mess the affair must have been. At any rate, the sixpounder caused an explosion of the steamer’s ammunition, whereby she sank in a quarter of an hour, giving time for El2 to get clear and sink two of the sailers. She then chased tho second steamer, which slipped her three tows and ran shoreward. El2 knocked her about a good deal with gun fire, and saw her drive on the beach well alight. . “ El2 carried an externally mounted gun, and while diving in the Dardanelles it got entangled in the hawsers of a net which 'caught the conningtower and the gun. The submarine bheked, got speed, barged ahead and shored through the hawsers, but the submarine was wet, strained and leaky for the rest of the cruise. She did her work, though worried by torpedoers, and hunted by aeroplanes, but throughout her chief preoccupation was due to the strained gun-mounting. Finally she got it firing again, but had to keep the water down by hand pumps coining home." Mr Kipling concludes Tho submarines throughout never willingly took the lives of non-combatants. These, were transferred to boats and were personally conducted to a safe unexploding beach.”