HOW THE GALLANT E-14 WAS SUNK OFF DARDANELLES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14844, 22 February 1919, Page 8

HOW THE GALLANT E-14 WAS SUNK OFF DARDANELLES.

B'RrnSH SUBMAIUNE WHTiOFI ENTERED STRAITS. . , LONDON, Dec. 26.— The. finest of aJI tales of the achievements of British eubmarines m war tihie, is now completed by the official story of the ainkingof the famous submarine. Er 14-. off. the Daixlanelles early m 1918, witli the loss of her commander, Lieut. -Cpnunan-d/sr' Wliijbe, ajid seven of the crevr. ' .<• The E-14 left Mudroe oil the evening of January 22 and proceeded up the Dardanelles to search for the Goeben: After diving Under . submarine nets she found that the Goeben, rivhich the* enemy had moved a few hours' previously, had .gone, e& Conrmandter White turned back, keeping a shai-p look-out for enemy craft! A torpedo was fired 1 at a, ship Arhich, ifc transpired, earned thb Goeben's ahimunitkwK A heavy explosion resulted, which extinguished the submarine's lights and spraiig |he fbrehatch. Leakiiig badly, the slbmai'ine i"oso to within fifteen feet of the surface. This drew a heavy fire, but the submarine was not damaged. Sine submerged to a hundred feet and continued 011 her course, but became unsteady and kept diving. Finally she -was brougfit to the surface, as site could (no longer bo relied upon under water, and' only l-hreo bottles of air were left. A heavy iiro immediately opened from both sides of the straits, and a shell hit the. hull jiiet over the wardroom, destroying the upper steering gear. : , A survivor of the E-14 says: "Orders iwere given to steer from below, and we ram the. gauntlet for half an hour, gnly a few shots bitting us. Th© oaptain. seeing it was. hopeless to escape, ran toward the shore. His last words wei<e:.'We are m . God's Jianda.' Only a few seconds later I looked lor him and saw his body, mangled by shellflre, roll into the water and 1 go under. .The last shell) hit the starboard tank, killing all on that side, I believe." '.The submarine coon afterwards .ran into a sandbar 'Close ia, shore, and. the Turks picked up the survivors.