HOW THE FALMOUTH WAS LOST.

Otago Witness, Issue 3276, 27 December 1916, Page 50

HOW THE FALMOUTH WAS LOST.

TWO ENEMY SUBMARINES SUNK. The following l account of tho loss of H.M.S. Falmouth has been received in Sydney from Mr 0. W. Palmer, Chief Writer on that warship: " I am plea3ed to say that, except for a badly-barked sh;n, I got clear away without anything worse than a good wetting in coal-black water, so I suppose I must coneider myself lucky. Two torpedoes struck us at 5 p.m. on Saturday—one in the bows and tho other in the rudder, which blew all the stecrago gear to pieces, and did a lot of damage aft. Then two more torpedoes were fired, and missed. A trawler oamo alongside and took off a lot of tho crew, but the old ship still floated, and destroyers and tugs arrived and took us in tow. We wero then 70 miles off the Yorkshire coast. It was slow work, as we could make only about 1-2 knots; but there were plenty of destroyers about, so we thought ourselves perfectly safe. At noon on Sunday (my wedding anniversary) just as we had sighted land, another torpedo struck us in the bows again. I turned and ran aft to escape the wreckage, when another torpedo struck us amidships, just behind me. A lot of water was thrown up through the bunkers, and washed me along the upper deck till I crashed against a bulkhead. When the water went down we were smothered in steam, but I found my way to my boat, and stood by to abandon ship. I had time to get some of my office papers before we ?hoved off, and we were taken aboard a destroyer, where a good Samaritan rigged me out in dry clothes. I forgot to mention that at each attack the submarine wasisunk by a destroyer, so all the loss was not on our side. " The ship did not sink till nine hours later, and wo reached port at 1 a.m. The following night we travelled down to Chatham, where they gave us a clean rigout and sent us on 12 days' leave.