BRITISH CRUISER RAMMED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14133, 7 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRITISH CRUISER RAMMED.

EXCITING COLLISION IN FOG.

' H.M.S. Sappho, a protected cruiser, was rammed in fog on June 19, a mile off Dungeness by a Wilson liner of the same name— Sappho. The liner escaped almost undamaged; the cruiser had a breach eight feet by foil* feet on her port side near the stokehold, and began to sink. But every soul was saved and the cruiser was' beached at Dover, 18 iniics away, with every prospect of salvage. The finest traditions of (he coolness of Ihe sailor in peril were maintained. Water quenched the cruiser's furnaces, the engines stopped, the pumps were useless, the electric light went out. the wireJess call for rescue could not be sent, i t But her 273 men, sleepers as they jumped from their bunks, firemen in trousers as, they rushed from the stokehold, stood calmly at their posts; the collision mats , did their work; the boats were got out, : and flares and guns called aid from the J * -shore. - ,

' . Dungeness is only a hamlet and the ' best of its men were at sea. Brave women and girlsi, however, helped to haul .the lifeboats over the shingle into the sea. ■ A motor-launch (belonging to Mr. Bates) ! responded to the call and soon between 1150 and 200 of the cruiser's men were

!»shore and provided for. i • Meantime Dover sent her powerful $ugs, one of which, the Lady Cr mid all, jivas lashed to the cruiser, pumping 800 tons of water an hour from her to keep , her afloat. Even then she was down to her topmost portholes. Other tugs towed hex slowly to Dover, while the rest of • the crew in their boats formed a ship- ■ i wrecked flotilla in the rear. By masterly seamanship the Sappho was beached [east of the Prince of Wales Pier, and 'the work of salvage began almost at foriee. The rest of the crew from Dunvgeness rejoined her, and a muster roll , .was called on the poop. FINE WORK BT WOMEN OF A I.ONTXT HAIII/KT.

The news thai a ship, which proved to be H.M.S. Sappho, was in danger of , sinking off Dungene-ss Point was made i known there shortly after nine o'clock tat night by rocket signals sent up by 'the warship. The coastguards, the fishermen, and the women of the tiny ham- \ Jet* responded nobly. The land surrounding fiie point is perTiaps the most desolate of the Kentish , coast. A little to the west is the light- '. house, and inland, half a mile "distant, ■set among a monotonous sea of level shingle, are about a score of cottages. •'At the back of the cottages the Romney iJiarsh stretches for miles. Within a short time of the signals being observed the lifeboat, housed near the lighthouse and close to the sea, was manned and launched. The launching of the second lifeboat, named after the Royal and Ancient Order of Buffaloes, ,was more difficult. That is was launch-;

Ed very shortly after its companion was jr<iue mainly to the devotion of the wo'men and girls of the hamlet. This is J the story told by one of the girl helpers, TP. tall, straight-limbed lassie, herself the , -daughter of a dead lifeboat hero : " When I heard the signal I ran . just "as I was, without hat or shawl, to the ' fcoathouse. . Several of mv girl friends nnd a few men were already there. We pulled and tugged with; all our might, and with the aid of movable gliders we . got the boat, over the two hundred yards of level shingle to the beach. By this time the remainder of the crew had arrived and the boat was launched. Then r»e felt happy, but anxious for the safety of those in danger." f ■ Presently the two lifeboats and the ?Sappho's own boats landed some 150. "of Vthe warship's crew. Of course, there is no sailors' home and the available accommodation was scant, but the' house.Miolders, and . especially : the women, did \ their, utmost to make . the shipwrecked men comfortable. In all Cottages . the lower rooms were converted into j sleeping apartments. Some eighty of ,'the men were put up in the Dungeness f.<techoolhouse. , Feat OF SALVAGE. . At seven o'clock iii the morning the t ,iJCruiser Sappho staggered into Dover Adf miralty Harbour and was safely beach- ■ ed. She was a helpless log low in the water as the little flotilla of submarines of the fleet anchored in the bay, which , looked on as the tugs dragged her in ipvith the ominous three-cornered salvage "flag at her masthead. But the white ennsign was still flying at her stern, as if sin pride of a triumphant achievement, j'/ For, pitiful as was . her . crippled state, She had added a page to the records ; of the capacity and resource of the British navy. . Courage and discipline in *the face- of death many other naval catastrophes ' have exhibited. The Sappho ; happily had not a man of her crew lost or even ' injured. But her ' eighteen-mile \ tow from Durigeness was the most thrilling and triumphant voyage of her re- ""*■ cord. , * - ; -

News of the disaster reached Dover

. about midnight. The new Admiralty tug Rambler was in dock behind locked . gates, with her fires out, so was not : available. But other tugs were soon • ready. The Lady Curzoh was first, and " the Herculaneum quickly followed. The .Lady Crundall, equipped with the most powerful pumping apparatus afloat, was ; 4 ; in dock. Captain Iron, the harbourmaster, had her crew whipped up with all speed, and as soon as -the dock gates were opened she hurried away. The Sappho had somehow managed, to keep herself ' afloat until they arrived. Until the rush of water < flooded her stokeholds and stopped her engines she had kept her pumps going. When these stopped and the water wse still pouring in, despite the collision mats, her only hope lay in the. staunchness of her watertight bulkheads. When the Lady Crundall arrived ft lie was lashed to the Sappho's stricken port side, and got her pumps, to work. The other two tugs attached their towing , " cables and the procession started for Dover, ' the nearest safe part, of the shore. The 70 men of the crew who had not

been landed at Dungene&s were disposed in the ship's beats and towed astern. In the bows of each boat, as in the sides of the lashed-on tug, stood men with axes ready instantly to cut the line should the Sappho suddenly founder. . All the. men wore their lifebelts, for i there was danger. It was slow towing. As mile after mile towards Dover was made good, the Sappho sank down inch by inch. Near the western entrance of Dover Harbour the strong surrents caught the helpless mass, but splendid seamanship by the tug • captains extricated ' her. Then, just after noon, when the tide was at the full, not only had she reached her appointed place within pebblo totfi of the promenade, but was securely laid stern to shore in convenient position lor the preliminary repairs which will be necessary to enable her to be refloated and taken to a dockyard. i The ship, which had reached shore so low down that her portholes were awash, kerned to rise out of the water on an eveu keel until the great gaping hole amidships could be seen. THE TWO BAPPHOS. H.M.S. Sappho is a twin-screw secondclass protected cruiser, having a displacement of 3400 tons, engines of 7000 indicated horse-power, and speed of 16 to 18 i knots. Built in 1891, she cost about £200,000. She was commissioned on August 8 last by Commander Harold Christian. .Her armament is two 6in guns, six 4.7 guns, eight 6-pounders, one 3-ponnder, and four machine guns, with four torpedo tubes above water-line. . The Wilson liner Sappho, nf Hull, is a . teterf screw steamer of 1694 tons gross, with engines of 116-h.p., built at Hull in 1903. - Commanded by Captain Steele, she was on • the way to the Mediterranean, and signal- • led as she passed St. Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight, that her damage was slight and that she was proceeding. The cruiser Sappho was subsequently '}' L refloated and left Dover under her own wteain for Sheerness, accompanied by the battleship Trafalgar and two Government ;'•* tugs. The damaged cruiser arrived'safely at Chatham Dockyard ,V, where she will imdergo. permanent repairs. ' ; :