AN EPIC OF THE WAR.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLV, Issue 11855, 11 June 1919, Page 2

AN EPIC OF THE WAR.

FIGHT WITH SUMBARINE. GALLANT CORNISH FISHER- _ MEN meuuiQ The deeds that have illumined the history of the British Empire during the war were referred to by Professor David at an Empire Day gathering at the Sydney Girls’ High School recently. “I only wish,” said Professor David, “that you could hear the story, told from his own lips, of Captain Geo. Irving, with whom I had the pleasure of returning to Australia. He was in charge of some small anti-submarine ships. His story concerns one of these vessels—a little ship of 800 tons, called the Gaelic, on the one side, and on the other one of the most up-to-dateltypes of German submarines. The Gaelic sighted the submarine, which came to the surface and snelled the little boat very heavily. Its masts were shot away. Its little motor engines were destroyed, and the ship itself was set ®n lire hy shells from the submarine. Many of the crew —simple Cornish fishermen —under Captain Irving, and the captain himself were wounded. All, indeed, w r ere wounded, and some were killed. But those who survived fought on, despite their wounds, against what appeared to be overwhelming odds for two and a-half hours, against the attacking submarine. Some of the poor fellows had their thighs ripped open hy fragments of a shell. But they bandaged them, went back, and carried shells to their little guns. The engineer was wounded. One hand was bandaged, but when the bandage was taken off the hand dropped off to the deck. It had been severed. But that man, despite all this, had been working all the time to fight the submarine. In the long run, Captain Irving and his men sank the submarine. ‘‘Such gallant deeds as this,” Professor David went on, ‘‘make ns not despair of onr Empire. This little action recalls the historic engagements of Sir Richard Grenville. ’ ’