HEROISM AT SEA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21165, 23 April 1932, Page 8

HEROISM AT SEA.

A WAR ANNIVERSARY. SINKING OF THE BALLARAT ALL ON BOARD RESCUED. Anzac Day is the anniversary not onlv of the Gallipoli landing but also of another war-time event, the sinking of the Australian transport Ballarat at the entrance to the English Channel on April 25, 1917. ■ The Ballarat, a P. and 0. steamer with 1752 souls on board, was 70 miles south-west of the Scilly Isles when slip was torpedoed aft by an unseen U-boat-.. The explosion wrecked her 6in gun, and the after hold and main engine compart, ment began to fill rapidly. The torpedoboat Lookout took on board a large number of the troops, but eventually it was clear that she could hold very few more. The transport wa6 then low in the water and seemed likely to sink at any moment. The torpedo-boat's commander was asked how many more men he could tnke, and he replied "Thirty." The troops had fallen in on the promenade deck, and the commanding officer gave !he order: " From the right, thirty file—right turn —quick march." No sooner had he spoken than he realised that he had ?et in motion double the number of men that could be taken. " Rear rank—stand fast," he ordered, and thirty men came to the halt and watched their comrades pass to safety.

Like the heroes of the Birkenhead, nearly a century earlier, the men stood firm in their ranks, seeing death coming slowly nearer and nearer. But fortune was with them for that time; a naval drifter hove in sight and completed the work of rescue. Not a life was lost, but the temper of the troops showed that had it been otherwise they would have met death with the fortitude that the best traditions of their race demanded.