CLOSSOP'S NARROW ESCAPE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 13572, 28 December 1914, Page 7

CLOSSOP'S NARROW ESCAPE.

LAST OF THE EMDEN. EXCITED AUSTRALIAN BOYS. FREMANTLE^ Dee. 18. The Times of Ceylon just to hand contains voluminous references to the exploit of the Sydney. . , A reporter who went among the wounded thus writes his impressions: — ''They are all in excellent spirits, and although, the two who are more severely wounded still suffer considerable pain they bear it magnificently! Five of the seven are- young men between the ages of 18 and 21, and, in spite of their- injuries, they spoke- of the action as a great stroke o"f # luck for them. '.' "The Sydney was seldom hit by the Emden," said* ,one of the men, •'thanks to the magnificent way in which our captain mano^uVred his ship. He zig- { zagged all over 'the place, and put their | gunners right off. _ First he would get out away from the enemy, and their shells would fall short of us. Then he would get in much closer while: they i were adjusting their range, and •''the shells would fly high over us. Then he' would turn and shoot off at a tangent, and it was in this way that after the first quarter of an hour or so they never seemed able to get our range properly. "The J captain of the Sydney had a very narrow shave indeed. He was on the bridge when the range-finder was shot away, and* could not have been more than four or five yards from the shell. As a matter of fact, the falling range-finder just brushed the shoulder of the yeoman of signals as it fell, and he was standing within a yard of the captain." ' Several of the wounded men said they were lifted up in order to look out of the ports at the Emden after she had been beached. Her stem appeared to be high up' on the beach, and her stern was very low in the water. All three funnels* had been shotaway. Her foremast was down, but her mainmast was standing. Her bridge had been swept away. She had a hole in her submerged torpedo flap almost big enough to drive a horse and cart throngh. "We were afterwards told by-Bome of the German sailors," said one, "that when the captain of the Emden sighted us, he said, 'If she is an Australian cruiser I will sink her.' But they got the biggest shock of their, lives. They did not know • that we had on ■ board eight guhlayers and a good sprinkling of petty officers who had seen much service; in tho Imperial Navy. "Apart altogether from this, they clearly under-estimated, the efficiency of the young Australian boys. * It was magnificent to see the way those boys, many of whom are only 18 years of age, worked the guns. They were frantically excited, and every time a good shot got home they simply yelled with delight. It took us older hands all our time to restrain them."