RUSSIAN NAVAL FEAT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16408, 9 December 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

RUSSIAN NAVAL FEAT.

SUBMARINE'S CAPTURE.

6000 TON TRANSPORT.

The exploit of the Russian submarine Tuilen, meaning "seal," which.'captured and brought to port the Turkish armed transports Rodosto, of 6000 tons, was only briefly mentioned in the official bulletin. The following further particulars are nowavailable. The Tuilen was lying, submerged, off Kevken, about sixty miles east, of the entrance to the Bosphorus, when, the approach of the Turkish vessel was noted. The Russian submarine promptly moved to get between the enemy craft and the shore, and, coming to the surface, opened fire at a range of about a mile. he Rodosto, which carried heavier guns than the submarine, returned the tire. Tho Tuilen, however, made better practice, and soon set the navigating bridge of tho Rodosto on five, pierced her steam pipes, and damaged her steering gear. The Kudos to, being thus reduced to helplessness, the submarine approached and battered the enemy ship at close range, afterwards running in and rescuing from the pieces of wreckage in the water a numuer of men. Among these were the lieutenant in command of tho Rodosto, the senior engineer, and the officer of the watch, all Germans.

Deserted by Officers. Apparently the German officers had deserted the ship without attempting to quench the fire caused by the Russian guns. Tho Tuilen put a prize crew on board, extinguished the flames, and repaired the damages sufficiently to enable the capture to be navigated. After forty hours' precarious passage tho prize crew brought the Rodosto safely into harbour at Sevastopol, escorted by the submarine. The gallant conduct of the Russian submarine speaks for itself, and the commander has been awarded the Cross of St. George for his striking exploit. But the behaviour of the German officers seems to require some explanation. The circumstances were precisely those In which Russian sailors, like the British, always sink their ship and take their chances of life, which are generally exceedingly small. Yet the German officers of this transport were all three found floating on wreckage alongside the ship, winch afterwards made a successful voyage of over three hundred miles to the Russian naval base in the Black Sea. Of the shocking gunnery display made by the enemy nothing need be said, as it is no novelty. But one would like to know just how the German officers got into tho water. Their duty, when they found themselves unable, in spite of superior armament, to cope with the artillery mounted on the submarine, was obviously to sink their ship. Under the present circumstances it was a very valuable prize, apart from what may have been on board, a point on which Ave are given no information.

Unparalleled. Presumably there were enough Turks on I board to resent the destruction of the ship. ] and the key to the whole story is doubtless | that when affairs got desperate the hated | German officers were flung overboard by i the 'lurks themselves or took to the water j of their own accord to escape a worse fate. I Moreover, the crews of submarines are I not calculated on a scale to afford spare | prize crews for working 6000-top ships hundreds of miles into a home port. While the highest eulogy is due to the submarine crew for their very bold and successful attempt to take a big ship by using only the weakest part of submarine armament against the superior artillery of the enemy, the most instructive part of the exploit- is that the submarine crew put out the fire raging aboard the Rodosto, repaired the damages, and reached a home port safely under escort of the submarine. Nothing like this has been done anywhere before since submarines took an active part in warfare.