DARING SUBMARINES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 310, 28 September 1915, Page 7

DARING SUBMARINES.

NUMEROUS SHIPS SUNK. EFFECTIVE WORK AT THE DARDANELLES. In the English files just to hand is contained the following account of the pr~""t exploit of submarine Ell in tine Sea of Marmora. The story is sent by one of the crew: We left Imbros one morning at about 3 o'clock and steamed towards the Dardanelles. We dived as the day was breaking and got through the narrows O.K. When we arrived at the other side we saw two battleships, and were getting ready to torpedo one of 'em, when they spotted us, opened fire on us and nipped, bunked, ran away. We tlhen journeyed on for a mile or two, then went to the bottom and rested until about 8 p.m. When we came up it was dusk, so we locked around, but nothing in sight broke the surface. We entered the Sea of Marmora, and lumped around for a few day s without sighting a thing until Sunday morning, when we were diving outside Constantinople, and sawa big gunboat. | At 6.25 a.m. we gave her tin fish. By 6.30 a.m., she was no more. But before she sank, and while she was listing over, they opened fire on us. A second s|hot hit our periscope and done it in. That gunner must have been a cool card, eh? On Monday we sighted a steamer, came to the surface alongside her,and told her to stop. She stopped and the men were so anxoius to get clear that one boat capsized. No lives were lost. A Yankee correspondent on board tried to blug us. No good, though, because an officer and two men boarded her, and discovered she had a 6-inch gun, with several gun m untings, and 15-inch ammunition aboard. So we blew her up. A few minutes later we sighted 'another. steamer and told her to stop. She would not. We chased her into the harbour,and when she was securing alongside the pier we torpedoed her. Soon after we sighted another steamer, and chased her till she ran ashore. We were about to board her when some cavalry came up and opened fire. We replied, dropped a few, and then dived and torpedoed the ship. .Next day, Tuesday, our skipper decided on entering Constantinople. To make a long story shot, we got into the harbour without, mishap, fired two torpedoes, one of which sank a transport loaded with troops, and the other exploded on shore somewhere. We learned afterwards that it caused some panic. The troops refused to go on another transport, shops were closed, and the people ran up hills—in fact, it caused an uproar for a time. J On the following Friday morning we saw five transports escorted by destroyers. We banged the first, the biggest one, whic[h sank in about three minutes. A few days later we went back to our old corner, where we sank those other three. We caught a supply ship napping a few days later, and then we got no more blood for a time until last Monday morning, when on our way back, just before entering the Narrows, we sank a transport. That was out farewell smack. When we broke the surface that evening, we found a mine over our bows, and chucked it off as quickly as possible. When our 9 l «ort came up they gave us three cheers, and off we went. When we entered the harbour it was dark. Had it been daylight, the Admiral would ihave made us steam round the fleet. All the ships we passed as we were making for the Adamant cheered j