WAR TIME AT SEA

Otago Witness, Issue 3396, 16 April 1919, Page 44

WAR TIME AT SEA

A CAPTAIN'S THRILLING STORY

FOUR TIMES TORPEDOED.

WHAT THE SUBMARINE MENACE MEANT.

In these days of multiplied badges and decorations a neat red torpedo, worn on the left sleeve, with three red bars underneath it, may easily pass without attracting attention, but anyone who knows the meaning of these honours will look more than once at the wearer, and he will, if he be a true Briton, doff his hat in the presence of a hero and a patriot. Captain R. Steel, of hia Majesty's vessel War Opal, which has just been visiting Dunedin, wears (by royal warrant) the torpedorom with three bars to show that, while engaged in the service of his country at sea, he has been four times torpedoed. His right sleeve is adorned with five gold chevrons to indicate the years of his service. Captain Steel is a small, neatly-built man with a friendly Scotch accent (he hails from West Kilbride), and the most cheery face - and manner you could wish. He has relatives hero. He is a nephew of Mr and Mrs T. Donaldson, of Ravensbourno, but it is 11 years since he visited Dunedin, and then he came as first officer of the Invertay.

"Yes," he said, in response to a reporter's request for some fuller information about his decorations, "I've been ' down' four times, and I've been up before the King. I could write a book. Really,- I could 1" Captain Steel courteously agreed to give an outline of some of the . more exciting experiences he had passed through. His story goes to show that all the changes of modern times still, leave the ancient, mysterious sea unchallenged, as the home of romance and thrilling adventure. It is good that the veil is at last lifted, and the people at large can now gain little by little some' definite knowledge of what it cost our seamen to keep the Empire safe and free. SUNK NEAR MALTA. "I have been engaged in the service- of the r avy all throughout the wax," said Captain Steel. "Early in the war I was running from New York to the iEgean and the - Dardanelles, with supplies. We were quite unarmed, as we could not leave America with any arms on board" until. America came.into the war. On one occasion ours was the only one out of a convoy of five vessels to reach Salonika safely. The other four were blown to pieces. Art an iEgean harbour there was a submarine waiting for me just outside. It was discovered because it came into the harbour and rose underneath fishermen's nets. A French waxship, with gun 9 trained, escorted us for eight miles down the bay, and perhaps for that reason the submarine did not attack, ' and I got clear away. All went Veil till I got within 80 miles of Malta. Then, without a second's warning, a huge submarine came to the surface, and started to.- : bombard me. I adopted naval manoeuvres in order to save the transport, but four: of "the shots took effect on the ship, and a torpedo fired at close range cut her bows off. I tried to turn her round and ram him, but the ship was sinking, and we took to the lifeboats. I was taken aboard the submarine, and the crew made sure my end had come. The submarine captain, with loaded pistoh set me at' 30 paces from him. ' What were you trying to do?' he demanded, for he had seen my manoeuvre. I explained that my steering gear had broken down! The German was evidently a little puzzled to know the truth, and eventually I was .allowed back to the lifeboat. On one 'occasion, he shot-the captain and a man beside him on sight for attempting to do the same thing, so I was fortunate. We bad very rough weather and a dreadful voyage of two days _ and three nights, almost without provisions, before we reached Malta." \ ON AND ,OFF A SUBMARINE. •On'the way baek to England the big ' armed transport by which Captain) Steel travelled had the excitement and satisfaction of rescuing a transport with 800 men on board from a submarine, to whioh it was just on the point of surrendering- "My next command," continued the captain, "was a ship returning to England with beef and oxo from Liebig, South America. All •went well till we were approaching the shores of England. I was rejoicing that all had gone so well, in spite of our having passed through so much wreckage of submarined vessels, which showed that the enemy had been very active. We were about 80 or 90 miles from a French naval base, and heading for the English Channel, when a submarine rose to the surface, and without a minute's warning a couple of shells passed right over my head as I stood on the bridge. I at once shifted my course for the naval base, and made an earnest endeavour to save the transport and her much-needed cargo. I got the ship before the wind to make it awkard for the gunners Oil the submarine, causing her to roll heavily; and after several shots,. which passed dangerously near to and over the ship, the submarine, finding we were not armed, rose to ,the surface, and came for us with all her speed, firing as fast as she could. I zig-zagged, hoping that a patrol boat would come up (I had no wireless or guns); but he could outpace mo by four knots an hour. Four shots pierced the ship's side, and a torpedo'passed within a very short distance of her bow. She heeled right over, and started to fill with water, and ' I knew she was doomed. So we launched the lifeboats. The cargo, being all in small cases, with lots of wood, kept the ship afloat. The submarine followed after my lifeboat, and her captain called to mo, 'You vos s^op!' but I was so wild at losing my ship so near Home that I would not stop. He steamed rightahead, threw a rope into the lifeboat, and got hold of her painter, and towed her after the submarine. The lifeboat, being on the weather, side, was thrown up twice on to the submarine's deck by the waves and bounced back again into the sea. I called out to them to take the boat to the lee-side. They did so, and took three of the crew on .to the submarine, who made sure they would be shot. Then the submarine captain, with a revolver in one hand and a big hatchet in the other, came down into the lifeboat with two of the submarine's crew, who had a number of live bombs round their necks. I asked him what the revolver and hatchet were for, and he said we were always so desperate and determined that they always had to be prepared for any emergenoy. 1 had only the boat's tiller and my ten fingers, but the fellow was really

frightened. Ho took us on board the ship to bomb it and search for secret Government naval books and papers He was greatly disappointed when I told him I had destroyed these two days before. They looted a lot of stuff from the ship, and then put bombs in different parts of the vessel and lit the fuses. There were four terrific explosions when we had got 600 ft away.. The ship heeled right over and was gone in a few seconds. A large passenger vessel, which we found out afterwards was the Royal Mail steamer Tagus, unarmed, with 600 people on board, was seen coming up at full speed as we were pulling off to the submarine, and the pirate got his torpedoes' placed ready. Another six minutes and she would have been within reach, but, fortunately, she saw the.submarine in time, and steamed off at a pace that the under-sea boat could not rival. Seeing that my lifeboat was damaged, and could not" live through a storm that was approaching, the captain of the submarine invited us to go on board; but I said "No. I would sooner sink in the Bay of Biscay than go aboard your ship." A TIMELY RESCUE. Happily, just as darkness was coming on a Spanish ship, bound for London with fruit, came up and took us on aboard. Going up the Channel she made very bad weatner of it, and our lifeboat, in its damaged condition, could not possibly have lived in the heavy sea that was running. The Spanish captain put in a wireless message to the French naval base and four destroyers were sent out to seek for the submarine. Later, wo learnt that they had found and sunk her at 9 o'clock that night, so that if we had not stinok to the lifeboat till rescued we would have gone down in the submarine. NARROW ESCAPES. "I got command of another ship about three weeks later, and was. sent to land munitions for German South-west Africa. I was off the Irish coast, 30 miles from the Laurentic the night she struck a mine and sank with the loss of 500 lives. Her lifeboats were picked up next morning with the people frozen to death in thf»m, so you can imagine what the weather was like. While we were loading at a Spanish port we were close alongside the German Consulate, and there were so many German sympathisers in the place that we were afraid they might put bombs aboard the vessel with the cargo. When we left we did not know whether there were any bombs on board or not and whether the vessel would remain afloat another 24 or 48 hours. It was an exceedingly anxious time. On the way out I wanted to pass a certain island within five miles, but a current stood me off from it and we passed it at seven miles distance. Later I learnt that if we had passed it at the distance I had intended we must have been blown up by mines the Meowe had sown there.

"A BUMP AND A BIT. OF OIL." "All went well on the return voyage till we were about 280 miles off the shores of England. It was an early morning in July, and the sea was as calm as a millpond. I was on the bridge taking observations when something breaking water caught my attention. It was the \ periscope of a submarine about one and a-half to two miles away, and without a moment's hesitation I yelled out to the man at the wheel, giving him a great start, 'Put your helm hard over, quick!' The ship responded' to her helm not a moment too soon, as a torpedo whizzed past within 4ft of and parallel to the ship; and" as I passed the submarine another passed within 9ft of \ our stern, j I then started manoeuvring with the ship, wondering what would happen next. Looking aft I saw the submarine coming up out pi range of my guns, right dead astern; and I could see the captain looking, at the ship with his glasses to note the effect of his torpedoes. He was evidently much surprised that they had missed us. Several shots were exchanged, but he had the heavier guns. My chief officer and other officers were killed duringthe gun duel. This meant that I had nctQfficers to help me, but I stuck to the bridge, and by careful zig-zagging got out of range. The submarine captain manoeuvred after >us a bit," and then lifted his wireless masts, evidently to speak to a confederate. A ship that passed us was torpedoed very shortly afterwards. About 1 p.m. the same day I sighted another submarine right ahead waiting to attack. I made as if I had not seen him, and then swung straight at the spot where I knew he was. We felt the bump, and noticed a lot of oil comin"- to the surface, but saw no wreckage. Without officers I had to spend 48 hours on the bridge, but brought her in safe to the English base. It was after this incident that the King sent for me and thanked me for my services to the nation and himself." SAVED BY A DEPTH BOMB.

"The next memorable voyage I had was in April, 1918, when the submarining campaign was at itß very worst. At that time we had to run full speed in convoys at night, fog or clear; were not allowed to blow our whistles, and never knew who of us would get in safe next morning. Every minute through the danger zone was just a tense waiting for what might happen. We lay in a naval base' 14 days on one occasion, because the Admiralty would not permit us to go up Channel, and once I escaped a submarine by following the course shown me by an aeroplane till I reached the gateway of a minefield. Wo were given an escort, because we had a valuable cargo needed for the making of guns. We got to a naval base in the English Channel, and were then given a further escort to enable us to get to a base in the North Sea. At 4 in the morning I steamed full speed into a German minefield. I think they must have been bridle-mines (powerful mines connected together) that we struck. It had been laid the night before, for it was not there the previous day. The ship was a sheet of flame and fire forward, the explosions were terrific, and though she was a great ship we felt the bows lift as the mines went off. Some of us were nearly killed by the weight of water falling on the bridge. Then the bow of the ship was struck by a torpedo from a submarine that was awaiting results from the minefield, and no doubt trusted to the mines doterring oux escort from closing in to our rescue. All the men _ in the forecastle were killed, and the ship broke into two poi-tions. The lifeboats were launched, and the ship's gunners dived overboard, as the vessel remained afloat only three minutes. I stuck to the bridge, and noticing four engineers in difficulties, I got a hatchet and tried to out adrift a small boat for one of them, but the ship disappeared under me. I was sucked down with her, probably for 40ft j but the destroyer who was escorting us dashed up

and dropped a depth bomb on the submarine, and the concussion blew me, with a lot of wreckage, to the surface. I was considerably cut about the arms and body. The .destroyer picked us all up, and only the five men who had been in the forecastle . were killed. Fortunately, we were just changing watches, or there would have been about 30 men killed. : I was the last to be picked up. After rescuing the others, the s destroyer took a final circle round the scene, of the accident before leaving, and thecommander saw me clinging to two planks. He said: 'I will see if it is a live man or a corpse,' and ran down alongside and picked me up about an hour after the ship had gone down. I thanked the commander very heartily for dropping the depth bomb, and he said I couM- thank my lucky stars that he had not dropped it any nearer to me, as, if he had, I would have been blown to pieces. We arrived at all safe, and I was sent to a naval hospital, where they put 13 stitches in right across my body. I • nearly lost my left arm through mortification having set in; but by careful treatment the arm was saved." A VESSEL, TO BE PROUD OF. And now after all these terrible_ years of dicing with death and living in the knowledge that at any moment swift destruction might tear his ship in pieces, Captain Steel has found honoured peace and safety and the command of as splendid a vessel as a man of his mettle could wish for. And yet he does not seem entirely satisfied, and it is with just a tinge of regret that he lives again through the tremendous years of the war. "Do you know, I feel like a boy of twenty," he declared. "I have been so splendidly treated by tho authorities that I would go through it all again twice over." And then he begins to speak of his present vessel with all the pride of a true connoisseur. The King , offered him the choice of three vessels in course of construction last year, and he chose the War Opal and superintended it* completion. "She is the brains of five admirals," he declared, and it only required a little examination of her for even & landsman to realise what that_ meant. Sha is equipped with every conceivable device and precaution for defeating submarines, and is adapted either for use as a troopship or a cargo liner. Her owner is hia Majesty the King, and her crew of 69 include a special naval crew, who have two 6in quick-firing guns in their care. She has mine exploding and mine-cutting gear for use in minefields, and has a ram for use as a last resort in action. She is unsinkable from a practical point of view, as she could be torpedoed in two holds and still remain afloat. Her wireless installation it very powerful, and has a receiving range of 1500 miles. With a view to rendering treachery impossible, it is all placed under the direct control of the captain. There is also emergency wireless and emergency steering gear for use if the main equipment is destroyed. Her gross tonnage is 6666, and she has the enormous carrying capacity of 12,500 tons. She is to load 26,000 bales of wool before leaving New Zealand, which her master claims to be the largest ■wool cargo ever taken from the dominion. Her cost was £282,000, and her engines develop 6000 horse-power. She has provision for carrying'3ooo tons of oil in her bottom for the use of naval escorts in time of war. The elaborate and ingenious manner in which she can be promptly disguised at a large destroyer we have already described. '..' She is, in fact, the perfect embodiment of the wisdom and experience of the men who ). have been fighting the Hun menace'at sea throughout the war, and the irony of tho situation is that she was completed just a month after the armistice, while tho man who now so proudly commands her faced that menace for three years absolutely unarmed and without even the protection of a wireless installation. One seems to hear an echo of Mr Lloyd George's burning words: "Too latef" ... --, ■■„