THE NAVY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3250, 28 June 1916, Page 26

THE NAVY.

RUOYARO KIPLING GH THE NAVY.

[COPYRIGHT 1916 BY RUDYARD KIPLING.]

LONDON, June 20. The following is the first of three articles written from official reports. It deals with British submarines' work in the Baltic : The following thrilling episode was experienced by Max Morton's E 9 in the depths of winter, when she was taken to her hunting grounds by an icebreaker, and left to her own devices. When in the open sea her log was recorded as circumstances were favourable. It was decided to attempt to bag a destroyer afterwards. She sees three, but too far off. Later, in the failing Sight, she saw a fourth, towards which she manoeuvred, her depth-keeping being very difficult owing to the swell. An observation balloon on a gusty day is almost as

stable as a submarine jumping in a i heavy sweli, and since the Baltic is : shallow, a submarine runs the chance of being let down whack on the notI torn. " Nevertheless, E 9 works her way for GOO yards towards her quarry, fires, and waits long enough to be sure that the torpedo is running straight, and then dips to avoid detection. Within 50 seconds she heard the torpedo detonating. Four minutes later she rose, ana found that the destroyer had disappeared. Then she soes to bed below in the chill dark till it is time to turn homewards, when she rose and met a storm from the north. " The spray froze as it struck the bridge, and became a mass of ice, so that her commander experienced a difficulty in keeping the conning tower and hatch free from the ice. The tele= graphic apparatus was frozen, and it was considered advisable to free the boat of ice, so she went below, and thus proceeded through a series of snow* storms till she got in touch with the ice-breaker. Somehow one has an idea that the ice-breaker had not arrived any too soon for ES's comfort. " That was in the winter; in sumir.er it was quite the other way. E 9 had to go to bed by day, when the Baltic was smooth, and could not get within a mile and a-half of anything with eyes without being put down. Her reward came when she sighted an cneniy squadron coming fast from the eastward —two heavy battleships, with an escort of destroyers. E 9 crept up to a three-funneller (either the Dentschland or one of the Braunschweig class), and fired both her bow torpe= does. The first struck just before the foremost funnel, and smoke and debris appeared to go as high as the masthead. E 9 had to go down quickly, before an approaching destroyer, which only missed her. The submarine struck bottom at 43ft. Then the second of her torpedoes was heard to explode. E 9 rose 20 minutes later to make sure, and saw a destroyer awaiting her a couple of hundred yards away. E 9 dipped for her life, but saw one large vessel five miles away. » " El, also in the Baltic (Commander Laurence), had experiences, too. One evening she sighted three transports. She hit the first, and while arranging for the second the third tried to ram her, so it was necessary to go down and waste precious li<*ht. When she rearose the stricken ship was sinking, and it afterwards blew up. Darkness defeated the attack on the other. El. during thick weather, came across a squadron of battle cruisers, and got in on one of the flanking ships—probably the Moitke. She had to dive immediately, and a destroyer missed her by only a few feet. The fog stopped furthcr developments. "It is a pity that the authorities da not realise the stories of glorious failures, when everything goes wrong, when the torpedoes break 1o the surface and squatter like ducks, or arrive full square and fail to explode; when the devil is in charge of all motors and clutches develop a play that would scare a mechanic bald, when the batteries give off death instead of power; at the top all ice, cr wreckage, wracks and wrenches the hull till the whole leaking bag makes tracks and limps home by the indomitable will of the red-eyed, husky scare* crows in charge."

June 22

Mr Rudyard Kipling gives a breezy narrative oi the adventures of submarine El 4 in the Sea of Marmora.

" 111 hunting grounds strewn with periis," he says, " and in waters full of eyes that gave no rest, Commander Courteney Boyle, of EM, proceeded to the Dardanelles un<?er a gas engine which was as noisy as a fall brass band in a railway cutting. The foils quickly picked up the submarine, but their guns missed. She dived under a minefield, and rose at a spot where the channel is only a mile and ahalf across. All the forts again fired. The water was thick with patrols vigor* onsly sweeping for the submarine astern and ahead, but El 4 managed to torpedo a gunboat. The log says that she had to dip quickly, as the men on a small steamboat were lean* ing over and trying to catch the top of her neriscope. "Having settled the gunboat, EM burrowed. bumped, and scraped through six hours of blind death and reached the Sea of Marmora, where it picked up three destroyers convoying a couple of troopships. It was glassy calni. The submarine at long range

fired a torpedo at one transport and ducked beiore it could judge the resuits. As the periscope was damaged by a casual shot, it was impossible to risk the remaining periscope. However, the submarine heard the thud. . and, rising again, saw the destroyer convoying a burning transport to the nearest beach. " When transports were difficult to find Ei4 sank a mine-layer. " EM, however, was not unpopular, as it let off a string of empty dhows, to the surprise of the occupants, and also several steamers full of refugees, instead of ' Lusitanianing' them, as expected, but transports were fair game. " Despite the necessity of not risking its remaining eye, EM got a big transport on a windy night, and made another beach itself. " When he had used tip his torpedoes Commander Boyle prepared to return. He was chased by a mixed pack, composed of a gunboat, torpedoboat, and tug, evidently anticipating that the submarine would be caught in the nets at Gallipoli. EM walked delicately for eight hours down the straits, under-running the strong tides, and ducking when the fire from the forts shot over her. " Finally EM saw our navy at the entrance, and rose abeam of a French battleship, who gave a rousing cheer. It had been away three weeks. Commander Nasmith's Ell made a similar voyage up the straits. Unfortunately her wireless gave trouble and left her deaf and dumb in the middle of the Sea of Marmora. Finally she went to Constantinople and sank a Turkish gunboat, but a six-pounder smashed her periscope, so she had to retire and fit a new top. Going to Rodosto, she stopped a small vessel and ordered the crew to abandon it. They tumbled into the boats in such haste that *they capsized two out of three. In the confusion an American named Silas Q. Swing, of the Chicago Sun, appeared Gn the upper deck and assured Commander Nasmith that the steamer was not carrying stores. The lieutenant in charge of a demolition party, however, found any quantity of stores, including a 6in gun lashed across the top of the fore hatch, which Mr Silas Swing had evidently overlooked, i " After torpedoing a heavily-laden storeship at the Rcdosto pier, the submarine returned to Constantinople. The log records that having dived unobserved into Constantinople she saw, etc. Mr Kipling continues: " Owing to the difficulties of mud and currents the submarine's adventures now resembled the lady of the harem tied in a sack arid thrown into the Bosphorus, but before she returned to the base she discovered a method of using her torpedoes twice over, which surprised the enemy. " She had ?«. thrilling adventure at the end of the trip off Kilid Bahr. The submarine seemed to go mad, and the log continues : ' We heard a noise similar to grounding. Knowing that to be impossible, we rose to 20ft to investigate. We observed a large mine preceding the periscope, which apparently hung by its moorings to the port hydroplane.'" Mr Kipling continues: " A mine weighs anything from a hundredweight to half a ton, and sometimes explodes if you merely think about it. At other times it submits meekly, if battered like an empty sardine tin, but at no time is It meant to wear upon a hydroplane. It was impossible to unhitch it, owing to the fire of the batteries ashore, so Commander Nasmith pushed the mine until he got outside Kum Kale. Then she went astern and emptied her after tanks, bringing the bows down. Thus she rose to the surface, when the rush of the water from the screws allowed the mine to fa's! clear of the vessel." THE NAVY'S WOUNDED. LONDON, Juno 19. His Majesty the King, accompanied by Admiral Sir David Beatty, visited the wounded Jutland heroes at the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh. The King conversed with all the men, asking for the fullest particulars of the battle. HIS MAJESTY'S INSPECTION. LONDON, June 19. His Majesty the King spent four days with the Grand Fleet, and taw all the ships that were engaged in the recent battle. He first visited the battle-cruiser squadron, which have been fully refitted. Some bear dents, but the whole unit is ready to go anywhere at a moment's notice. The King next went to the base where the great striking force of the Grand Fleet lies, moored in long lines, inchiding many that have been recently commissioned. GERMAN STEAMER TORPEDOED. STOCKHOLM". June 19.

A submarine, believed to be British, north of Falkenberg, torpedoed the steamer Ems, bound from Christiania to Lubeck. The crew were landed. A Swedish patrol boat, observing another steamer approaching nearer the steamed between the submarine and the steamer ami fired a warning shot. The submarine disappeared.

[The Ems was a small Gorman steamer, apparently trading with Scandinavia. Falkenberg is a town on the south-western coast of Sweden, so that Iho submarine was on the opposito side of Jutland from that where tlio North Sea. engagement was fought, and so much further on the way to tho°Baltic Sea.]

SEAPLANES VERSUS SUBMARINE. Copenhagen; June 19. Two seaplanes ineffectively bombed a

British submarine in the Kattegat. The submarine shot down one seaplane.

THE NAVAL BATTLE. LONDON, Juno 22. Questioned in the House of Commons, the Financial Secretary to the Admiralty (Dr Macnanrara) said that it was impossible to define the full German losses in the .Jutland fight, but the Admiralty had no reason to modifv its estimate of June 5 (viz., two battleships, two battle-crui-sers, fo-.u- light cruisers, at least nine destroyers, and one submarine).