KIPLING ON THE NAVY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16267, 28 June 1916, Page 8

KIPLING ON THE NAVY.

SUBMARINE EXPLOITS.

AWKWARD SITUATIONS.

ENCOUNTER WITH STEAMERS. (Received June 27. 1.15 a.m.) LONDON. JUNE 26. In his third article on the navy Mr. Rudyard Kipling' records further submarine adventures in the Sea of Marmora. He also gives a detailed description of the cutting out affair of the El2, Commander Bruce. The main motors of the El2 gave trouble, and she was a cripple most of the trip" She sighted two small steamers and three sailers. She stepped tho first steamer, and the commander noticed that the steamer carried stores, while the crew were all on deck with lifebelts on. Not seeing any gun ho ran alongside, and told the first lieutenant to board the steamer. A Turkish sailor then threw a bomb at the El2, which struck but did not explode. Sailors opened fire on the* boarding party with rifles and a concealed lin gun. The El2 answered with her six-pounders, also rifles. Two sailing vessels in tow of the steamer tried to foul the El 2's propellers. The crews also fired rifles, at the first lieutenant and the boarding party engaged on the steamer. The El 2's six-pounders were methodically perforating the steamer from bow to stern, and the lin gun on the steamer and the rifles on the sailing ships were raking everything and everybody else. Tho cowswain, on the conning-tower, passed ammunition. The one workable motor on the submarine developed slight defects at the moment when the power to manoeuvre was vital.

The story is almost as difficult to disentangle as the actual occurrences must have been. At any rate the six-pounder caused "'an explosion of the ammunition on the : steamer, and she sank in a-quarter of an hour, giving time for the | El2 to get clear and sink two i sailers. The submarine then chased the second steamer, which slipped her three tows and ran ashore. The : El2 knocked her about a good deal : by gun-fire, and saw her drive on to the beach well alight* The El2 carried an externallyi mounted gun. While diving in the ! Dardanelles she got entangled in the hawsers of a net, which caught her gun. The submarine backed, got speed, barged ahead, and shored through the hawsers, but she was wet, strained, and leaky for the rest of the cruise. She did her Work, although worried by torpedo-boats and hunted by aeroplanes. Throughout, her chief pre-occupation was her strained gun-mounting. Finally she got it firing again, but had to keep the water down by hand- s pumps coming home. Mr. Kipling concludes: "The submarines throughout never willingly took the lives of non-combat-ants. These were transferred to boats and personally conducted to a safe beach."