RAID BY THE RIVER.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11764, 26 February 1919, Page 6

RAID BY THE RIVER.

AN EVENTFUL NIGHT,

LONDON FLINGS HER DEFIANCE AT HER ENEMIES

The convey of mei'chan* ment, after a calm, quite uneventful voyage across the ambushed sea, put into a port on the Channel for the night, and the following morning dispersed to their various harbours. Some sort of coast patrol boat “not much bigger than an admiral’s launch” —the words are those of Steve Jordan, of the Armed Guard —took the b.s Snowden under her metaphorical wing, and brought her up the Thames. The vessel lay in a basin just off a great bend in the river, in a bind of gigantic concrete swimming pool bordered with steel arclight poles planted in rows Jibe impossibly perfect trees To starboard, through another row of arc poles and over a wall of concrete, they coull see the dirty majesty of the great brown river and the squares s ihouetted bulks of the tenements and warehoueas on the other sine. Steve, hospitably invited to remain aboard, went to the starhord rail and stood stnydying the river. The last smoky light had ebbed from the sky; night, rich, and strewn with autumnal stars, hung over the gigantic city, and a moon just passing the first quarter hung close by the meridian, and shone reflected in the pcml-basin and the river’s moving tide. Suddenly Steve heard down the street a sustained note from something on the order of a penny whistle, and an instant later a window was flung open and a figure leaned out It was too dark to see whether it was a man or a woman.

Then the same whistle was hlowa again as if hy a conscientious boy, and a factory siren with a sobbing human cry rose over the warehouses. At the same moment <he lights about the deck flickered, clicked, and died. There was a confused noise of steps behind, there were voices—“ Hey, listen!” “Wot’s that? (the last in pure cockney), and a questioning, doubting Thomas voice said, “A raid?” The figure of the captain was seen on the bridge. One of the ship’s boys went hurrying round, probably closing doors. Presently a number of star shells burst in fountains of coppery bronze Every hatch covered, every port and window sealed,'the Snowden awaited the coming of the raiders. “There! ’ear that?” said someone.

Far away, on the edge of the Essex marshes and moonlit sea, a number of anti-aircraft guns had picked up the raiders The air was full of a faint, sullen murmur, continuously as the roar of ocean on a distant beach The sullen roaring grew louder and nearer, no longer a blend, but a sustained, crescendo of pounding sounds and muffled crashes A belated star shell broke, and was reflected in the river. A police boat passed swiftly and noiselessly,a solitary red spark floated from her funnel as she sped. . The roaring gathered’strength. The guns on the coast were still; now one heard the guns on the inland moors, the guns in the fields beyond quiet little villages, the guns lower down the river . - . they were following the river . . . now the guns in the outer suburbs . . . now the guns in the very London spaces—ring, crash, tinkle, roar, pound ! The great city flung her defiance at |her| enemies. Steve became so absorbed in the tumult that he obeyed the order to take shelter below quite mechanically. A new sound came screaming into their retreat, a horrible kind of whistling zoom, followed by a heavy pound. Steve was cold that he had heard a bomb fall “Somewhere down tne river.” “"Yon see.” explained one of the twins, in the oorefui, passionless tone that be would have used in giving street directions to a stronger “the Huns are on their way up the river, dropping a kettle on any boat tnat looks like a good mark, and trying to set the docks afire. The docks always get it. Listen!” “There is a second zoom,” and a third close on its heels. “These are p r obabiy on the ‘Aetna’ basins,” said the other twin.“ Their aim’s besstiy rotten as a rule. If this light were ont’we might be able to see something from a hatchway. Mr Millen (the first mate) makes an awfal fuss if be finds anyone on deck. I know what’s what; let’s go to the galley ; there’s a window that can t be shut.” The three lads stole off. Beneath a lamp turned down to a blue'sh yellow flame the older seamen waited placidly for the end of the raid, and discussed, aalior fashion, a hundred irrelevant subjects. The darkened apace grew chokingly thick with tobacco smoke. And the truth of it was that every single sailor in there knew that the last two bombs had fallen on the “Aetna” basins, and that the Snowden would be sure to catch it nest. By a trick of the gods of chance the vessel happened tc be alone in the basin, and presented a shining mark. The lads reached the galley window By crowding in, shoulder to anoulder, they could all see. The pool and its concrete wall were hidden ; the window opened directly on the river. Presently came a 101 l in the tnmnit, and during it Steve heard a low monotonous hum, the song of the raiding ’planes. More fragments of shrapnel fell upon the deck The nmon hal travelled westward, and lay, large and golden, well clear of the town The winter stars, bright and inexorable, had advanced ... tne city was

lighting on Suddenly the three bays beard the ominous aerial whistle; oue of the twins slammed the window too, and an instant lat°r there was a sound within the dark littls galleyj as if somebody bad touched off an enormous invisible rocket ... a frghlfnl “zoom”

and impsct . . silence They guessed what had happened a ho mb, intenvied for the Snowden, had fallen in the river Later, somewhere on land,’was heard a thundering crash which shook the vessel violently A pan, or something of the kind, banging on the gallsy wall fell with a startling crash “Get ont of there, yon hoys,’’ called the cook. Ship’s galleys are sacred places and are to he respected even in air raids And then . . . even mote slow and gradually than it had gathered to a flood, the uproar ebbed. The firing grew spasmodic, ceased wthin the city limits, . . lingered as a distant ramble from the outlying fields and finally died away altogether The sailors, released by a curt order, came on deck The top