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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Harwich Naval Forces, by E. F. Knight
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Harwich Naval Forces
+       Their Part in the Great War
+
+Author: E. F. Knight
+
+Release Date: September 20, 2010 [EBook #33769]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HARWICH NAVAL FORCES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Mark C. Orton, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HARWICH NAVAL FORCES
+
+
+
+
+  THE HARWICH
+  NAVAL FORCES
+
+  _Their Part in the Great War_
+
+  BY
+  E.F. KNIGHT
+
+  AUTHOR OF "WHERE THREE EMPIRES MEET,"
+  "THE CRUISE OF THE 'FALCON,'" "THE 'FALCON' ON THE BALTIC," ETC.
+
+
+
+
+  HODDER AND STOUGHTON
+  LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO
+  MCMXIX
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Recent visits that were made to Harwich for the purpose of writing a
+series of articles on the Harwich Naval Forces for the _Morning Post_
+suggested to me the amplification of these articles and their
+reproduction in the form of a little book. This does not profess to be
+anything more than a summary of the gallant doings of the Harwich
+Forces in the course of the war. The full history, no doubt, will be
+written some day. But this, I hope, may serve as a record that will
+enable many to realise better what Britain owes to the Navy, and what
+a great work was done by the light cruisers, destroyers, submarines,
+and auxiliary vessels that had Harwich as their base throughout the
+war.
+
+For the purposes of this book I have referred to no official records.
+Conversations with those who were eye-witnesses of and participators
+in the events that I have here described have served as my sole source
+of information.
+
+My thanks are due to the naval officers who so readily assisted me in
+my quest while I was in Harwich, and to the _Morning Post_ for the
+kind permission which I have received to publish in book form my
+articles that appeared in that paper.
+
+                                                           E.F.K.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+_Part I_
+
+THE HARWICH FORCE
+
+CHAPTER I
+                                                             PAGE
+THE OPENING OF THE WAR                                          5
+
+    The light cruisers and destroyers--Harwich in war
+    time--The Harwich Force goes out--The first shots
+    of the naval war--Sinking of the _Koenigin
+    Luise_--Loss of the _Amphion_.
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT ACTION                                    23
+
+    The plan--The sweep by the Harwich Force--The
+    destroyers in action--_Arethusa's_ duel with the
+    _Frauenlob_--Off Heligoland again--Action with
+    German light cruisers--The _Mainz_ sunk--End of the
+    _Arethusa_.
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OTHER ACTIONS                                                  45
+
+    The battle of the Dogger Bank--The sinking of the
+    _Bluecher_--The Lowestoft raid--The action off
+    Texel.
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE CONVOYS                                                    55
+
+    The Beef Trip--Escorting mine-layers--Encounters
+    with enemy mine-sweepers--Sinking of the
+    _Meteor_--The _Centaur_ mined.
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ESCORTING SEAPLANES                                            73
+
+    The Cuxhaven raid--The Sylt raid--Enemy patrol
+    boats sunk--Loss of the _Medusa_--The flagship rams
+    an enemy destroyer--Saving of the _Landrail_.
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PATROLS                                                    97
+
+    Raids on enemy trawler fleets--The unsleeping
+    watch--Patrolling the Channel barrage--Patrolling
+    the mine-net barrage--The patrols in action.
+
+
+_Part II_
+
+THE HARWICH SUBMARINE FLOTILLA
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+COMPOSITION OF THE FLOTILLA                                   113
+
+    The shore establishment--Heavy losses of the
+    flotilla--Humorous incidents--Drowning the
+    mascot--Bluffing the Huns.
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RECONNAISSANCE AND MINE-LAYING                                127
+
+    The eyes of the Fleet--The _Westphalen_
+    torpedoed--Mine-laying submarines--Destruction of U
+    boats.
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FINE SUBMARINE RECORDS                                        145
+
+    Some narrow escapes--Sinking a Zeppelin--The doings
+    of the E9--Sinking of the _Prince Adalbert_--The
+    decoy trawler.
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+GERMAN CRIMES                                                 163
+
+    Loss of the E 13--Inhuman Hun methods--Stranding of
+    the U.C. 5--German traps--Risky salvage work.
+
+
+_Part III_
+
+THE HARWICH AUXILIARY PATROL AND MINE-SWEEPING FORCE
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE ROYAL NAVAL TRAWLER RESERVE                               181
+
+    Mine-sweeping trawlers--Captains courageous--Scotch
+    drifters--The motor launches--Keeping open the
+    swept channels.
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WORK OF THE AUXILIARIES                                       207
+
+    Mine-sweeping methods--Indicator nets--Heavy
+    losses--Brilliant rescues.
+
+CONCLUSION                                                    231
+
+
+
+
+_Part I_
+
+THE HARWICH FORCE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OPENING OF THE WAR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE OPENING OF THE WAR
+
+    The light cruisers and destroyers--Harwich in war time--The
+      Harwich Force goes out--The first shots of the naval
+      war--Sinking of the _Koenigin Luise_--Loss of the
+      _Amphion_.
+
+
+He who undertakes to write the history of the Naval Forces which had
+Harwich as their base during the Great War will have a wonderful story
+indeed to tell--from the sinking, within a few days of the declaration
+of war, of the German mine-layer _Koenigin Luise_ by a section of the
+force, down to the day when there steamed into Harwich harbour, under
+the escort of the Harwich Force, the surrendered submarines of the
+beaten enemy. To those who manned our ships during those four
+terrible years it must all seem now like some strange dream--the
+weary, watchful patrolling through storm or fog, with no lights
+showing on sea or shore; the feeling of the way by dead reckoning and
+lead in dark wintry weather along the enemy's coasts, with an
+ever-vigilant foe above, below, and on the surface of the sea; the
+amazing adventures; the risks boldly taken; and ever and anon an
+action fought with a fierce determination on both sides.
+
+For the Germans fought bravely and skilfully on occasion during the
+first years of the war. One gathers that it was not until the end that
+their _moral_ began to weaken. They thought that they could shake the
+_moral_ of the British Navy by methods of frightfulness, by the
+cold-blooded murder of the survivors of sinking ships, and so forth.
+But it was their own _moral_ that failed at last. For this parvenu
+German Navy, good though its ships and good its personnel, was lacking
+in one essential--the tradition that inspires our own Navy, the
+significance of which tradition the German, who knows not chivalry, is
+incapable of understanding. A Navy with an old and glorious tradition
+could not have surrendered itself, as did the German Navy, without
+having come out and made a fight--if hopeless fight--of it, as did the
+Spanish ships off Cuba and the Russians at Chemulpo, so saving the
+honour of their flag.
+
+It is part of the tradition, too, of the British Navy at all cost to
+stand by a friend in distress. It will be remembered that at the
+beginning of the war two important ships were torpedoed while
+rescuing the crews of sinking consorts, and that this led to the issue
+of an Admiralty order to the effect that no heavy ships must risk
+valuable material by undertaking this dangerous work, which should be
+left to the light craft. The zeal that comes of an old tradition may
+need checking at times, but it leads to victory in the end. Had the
+_Bluecher_ belonged to a Navy with a tradition, it is improbable that
+she would have been deserted, as she was, by the Germans after her
+disablement.
+
+To any Englishman who, in these days of the armistice, looks across
+Harwich harbour and the broad estuary of the Stour, that scene,
+composed of grey wintry sky, grey sea, and grey warships at anchor,
+will remain to him as a stirring memory. For those are the light
+cruisers and destroyers of the Harwich Force, and there, too, is the
+Submarine Flotilla--all these have fought in the Great War; some
+throughout the war; while others have joined the force later to
+replace ships that have been lost in action. On board these ships are
+still the crews that fought them. No doubt shortly ships and men will
+be dispersed. But at present they remain here in readiness, for it is
+not Peace yet. Higher up the Stour, a token of victory, lie the
+surrendered German submarines, on account of their dirty condition
+more plainly visible through the haze than are our own ships; for the
+Huns, naturally, before giving them up, wasted no paint on the outside
+of these craft, and certainly no soap within.
+
+What is known as the Harwich Force, towards the end of 1914, was
+composed of the light cruisers _Arethusa_, _Fearless_, _Undaunted_,
+and _Aurora_, and forty destroyers forming two flotillas. The force
+gradually increased its strength of light cruisers, being joined at
+various times by the _Penelope_, _Conquest_, _Cleopatra_,
+_Canterbury_, _Carysfoot_, and others. Commodore Tyrwhitt--now
+Rear-Admiral Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt--commanded the force from the
+beginning, his first flagship being the _Arethusa_. He is still in
+command of the force, with the _Curacoa_ as his flagship.
+
+Various were the duties performed by this light force--the patrolling
+of the enemy's coasts, keeping the Grand Fleet informed of the enemy's
+movements, the perpetual harassing of the enemy, the hunting down of
+his submarines and mine-layers, the enticing out of his heavy ships
+to fall into our traps, the convoying of merchantmen, and so forth.
+The work was extremely important and highly dangerous. Throughout the
+war there was always some portion of the Harwich Force upon the seas,
+and always a portion of it in harbour under steam, ready to rush out
+at a moment's notice should the wireless waves give notice of
+something doing on the North Sea. On one occasion practically the
+entire Harwich Force got out of harbour within twenty minutes of a
+call for its assistance. Even when there was no urgency, no longer
+than three hours' notice was ever given.
+
+A force so actively engaged as was this one could not fail to suffer
+many casualties--in all probability heavier casualties in proportion
+to its numbers than any other naval force. Admiral Lord Jellicoe, on
+one occasion, in a message of greeting to the force, said: "Your
+casualties alone in this war show what your work has been," or words
+to that effect. What the total casualties of the force were I do not
+know; but the narratives that have been communicated to me account for
+the total loss of over twelve of the destroyers, while the number of
+others seriously damaged by shell, mines, and torpedoes is still
+larger.
+
+Harwich, possibly, was nearer to the war and its tragedies than any
+other port in England. For often, by day or in the quiet night, would
+be heard the weird signal of the sirens that summoned officers and men
+on leave on shore to hurry back to their ships, as something was
+happening on the North Sea that called for the Harwich Force, or a
+portion of it, to put to sea at once. This recall signal, say those
+who heard it in Harwich, had a most impressive effect. Taking the time
+from the flagship, each cruiser in the harbour sounded both her sirens
+three times, each blast being of three minutes' duration.
+
+There is an hotel overlooking the water at Dovercourt--one of the few
+that had not been requisitioned by the authorities--that was a
+well-known rendezvous of officers during the war. Situated about half
+way between Harwich pier and Parkeston quay--whither men had to go to
+join their ships--and about a quarter of an hour's walk from either
+place, it was recognised as being a convenient place of call for naval
+officers who were on shore for a few hours in those days of sudden
+summons. It had been arranged, too, that the hotel telephone should
+always supplement the message of the siren. At this hotel--and, by the
+way, what a scene was here when the armistice was announced!--there
+were always staying numbers of the relatives and friends of the naval
+officers. There was often a gay assemblage here. It was the gaiety of
+brave men at the prospect of danger, and of women who concealed their
+anxiety for the sake of their men. On one occasion, when the loud
+siren's call, dreaded of women, came, a concert for the benefit of
+some naval or military fund was just opening in the great hall
+belonging to the hotel, and the wives and other ladies related to the
+naval officers were selling the programmes. There was no time for
+farewells; the officers left the hall and hurried down the unlit,
+narrow streets of the old town to the quays as fast as they were
+able. But the concert was not interrupted, and, assuming a brave face,
+the ladies continued to sell the programmes. As on other occasions, of
+the men who left the hall that night there were some who did not come
+back.
+
+There are many who were in Harwich during the war who can now read
+Byron's stanzas describing the scene at Brussels on the eve of
+Waterloo with an understanding mind. This war has shown that the
+spirit of the Elizabethan and Nelson days is still with us. One
+wonders how the people of ages hence, when, from a long way off, they
+look back at these "_old, unhappy, far-off things and battles long
+ago_," will think and write of the men and women of this day.
+
+The Harwich Force lost no time in going out to search for the enemy
+after the declaration of war. War was declared by Great Britain on
+August 4, 1914, and at an early hour of the morning following that
+fateful event the people of Harwich thronged the quays and the
+seashore to witness the steaming out of the harbour at high speed of
+the entire Harwich Force. It was a scene of wild enthusiasm on shore,
+and the population loudly cheered the ships that were hurrying off to
+fight the enemies of England.
+
+It was at six in the morning of that glorious summer day that the
+force left the harbour, and then the ships spread out in accordance
+with orders. At 9 a.m. a section of the force, consisting of the light
+cruiser _Amphion_ and some destroyers, were near the Galloper, when
+Captain Fox, commanding the _Amphion_, hoisted the cheery signal,
+"_Good hunting!_" It was a signal that typified the sporting spirit in
+which our Navy went to work from the beginning to the end of the war.
+Soon the chance came to this flotilla of firing the first shots that
+were fired in the naval war.
+
+At 10.30 the _Koenigin Luise_, a German mail steamer that had been
+fitted out as a mine-layer, was sighted. Chased by the destroyers
+_Lance_ and _Landrail_, she was brought to action half an hour later.
+Then the destroyers _Lark_ and _Linnet_ joined in the chase, and by
+midday the other ships had come up. The enemy had evidently been badly
+damaged by our fire, for she was steaming away at a considerably
+reduced speed. At 12.15 she was in a sinking condition; so her crew
+abandoned her and jumped overboard. But her engines had not been
+stopped, and she still went on slowly until at last she turned round
+on her side and began to settle down. Out of the _Koenigin Luise's_
+complement of one hundred men, forty-three, some of whom were badly
+wounded, were picked up by our boats. Of these, twenty were taken into
+the _Amphion_.
+
+The mine-layer had evidently been at work on the English coast,
+possibly even before the declaration of war; for at 6.35 on the
+following morning, August 6, the _Amphion_ struck a mine. There was a
+violent explosion under the fore bridge. Every man on the fore
+mess-decks was killed, as were eighteen out of the twenty German
+prisoners in the ship. Captain Fox and the four officers on the bridge
+were stunned and badly burnt on hands and face. The _Amphion_ now
+began to settle down by the head, and her sides forward were turning
+black as the result of the internal fires. For three or four minutes
+she continued to move slowly in a circle before the word could be
+given to stop the engines. The men all collected on the quarter-deck.
+There was absolutely no sign of panic. The boats were lowered quietly.
+The discipline was magnificent. Within a quarter of an hour after the
+explosion the boats from the destroyers were alongside the _Amphion_,
+and all the survivors were taken off.
+
+After this had been safely effected, the fire that was raging under
+the fore mess-decks having reached the magazines, another terrific
+explosion occurred in the _Amphion_. This blew away a large portion of
+the fore part of the ship, and quantities of wreckage began to fall
+over the surrounding sea, causing several casualties in the
+destroyers. One shell fell on board the _Lark_, killing two men of the
+_Amphion's_ crew and a German prisoner who had just been rescued from
+the _Amphion_. Thus this man, who had survived two disasters in the
+space of a few hours, now fell a victim to the accident of falling
+debris.
+
+It is worthy of mention that one of the destroyers' boats, while
+passing through the floating wreckage, came upon an uninjured football
+that had come from the _Amphion_. The men were keen on salving it; so
+it was picked up and brought on board the destroyer, and it was used
+throughout the following football season whenever the ship was in
+port. The Hun prisoners, belonging to a race that professes to despise
+the British for their love of sport, were given food for thought by
+this incident.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT ACTION
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE HELIGOLAND BIGHT ACTION
+
+    The plan--The sweep by the Harwich Force--The destroyers in
+      action--_Arethusa's_ duel with the _Frauenlob_--Off
+      Heligoland again--Action with German light cruisers--The
+      _Mainz_ sunk--End of the _Arethusa_.
+
+
+The first naval action of the war was that in the Bight of Heligoland.
+In this the Harwich Forces played a notable part. The Harwich
+submarine flotilla under Commodore Roger Keyes (now Vice-Admiral Sir
+Roger Keyes) had a good deal to do with the preparation for the
+battle. At the beginning of the war these submarines were sent to
+guard the approaches to the English Channel, their object being to
+prevent any portion of the German fleet from passing through the
+straits and attacking the ships that were conveying our first
+Expeditionary Force to France. While thus employed they did valuable
+work in observing the movements of the enemy light forces in the North
+Sea. Acting on the information supplied by the submarines, the
+Commander-in-Chief decided to send the fast ships of the Harwich Force
+to make a sweep of the North Sea up to Heligoland and cut off enemy
+light craft known to be operating within that area.
+
+August 28 was the day appointed for this raid. The Harwich submarines
+were sent out in advance to scout and to attack any enemy ships that
+might issue from the German bases to support their light craft. At the
+same time, from the Grand Fleet base, a squadron of cruisers was sent
+to the westward of Heligoland in order to intercept the German light
+craft should the Harwich Force succeed in cutting them out and driving
+them to the west. Beatty, with battle cruisers and light cruisers,
+went to an appointed position to be in readiness to support the
+Harwich Force when the time came. Probably one of the objects of this
+expedition was to entice the German capital ships to come out from
+their base and fight. If so, the expedition, though quite successful
+in its other aims, failed in that respect. For even at this early
+stage of the war the enemy refused to accept the challenge of the
+British Navy. The fighting took place within thirty miles of the
+German base. Within a very short time the enemy could have put an
+overwhelming force into action against our ships. But he did not do
+so, and allowed his light cruisers and destroyers to be sunk within
+hearing of his passive battleships and battle cruisers.
+
+So on the morning of August 28 the Harwich Force, composed of two
+light cruisers--the _Arethusa_, Commodore Tyrwhitt's flagship, and the
+_Fearless_, commanded by Captain W.F. Blunt--with forty destroyers,
+were sweeping round towards Heligoland. This, of course, was very
+early in the war, and the _Arethusa_, a brand-new ship, had had no
+time to carry out her gun practice and complete other preparations
+when she was ordered out. At 4 a.m. the _Arethusa_ and twenty of the
+destroyers were within seventy miles of Heligoland, sweeping down
+towards the island at twenty knots, the _Fearless_ and the other
+twenty destroyers following five miles astern. The weather was fine,
+but when it is not rough in the North Sea it is usually misty, and it
+was so on this occasion, the visibility being only 5000 yards. Just
+before 7 a.m. an enemy destroyer appeared on _Arethusa's_ port bow.
+One of our destroyer divisions was ordered to chase her. This, as one
+who took part in the action put it, "started the ball." The fog lifted
+a bit, and the sun's rays occasionally broke through it. And now out
+of the mists ahead loomed several objects which proved to be enemy
+destroyers and torpedo-boats. It was evident that the Harwich Force
+had run into the patrols that it had been sent to seek out. A very
+brisk engagement was now fought between our destroyers and those of
+the enemy. In the course of this destroyer action, the 4th Destroyer
+Division, composed of the _Liberty_, _Laurel_, _Lysander_, and
+_Laertes_, engaged an enemy light cruiser and torpedoed her, but did
+not put her out of action. Both _Liberty_ and _Lysander_ were a good
+deal knocked about and had numerous casualties, the captain of the
+_Liberty_ being among the killed.
+
+A curious incident occurred at the close of this destroyer action.
+Another of our destroyer divisions had engaged and sunk an enemy
+destroyer. The British destroyer _Defender_ had lowered a boat to save
+the survivors, who were struggling in the water. The boat had picked
+up several of the men, when a German light cruiser opened fire both
+upon our destroyers and upon the boat. The order came to the
+_Defender_ and the other destroyers to retire at once, and this they
+had to do, leaving the boat behind. To the men in the boat the outlook
+was not a cheerful one. Imprisonment in Germany for the duration of
+the war seemed their probable fate. But the retirement of the enemy
+had by this time commenced, and the German light cruiser which had
+been shelling them now steamed away without stopping to pick them up.
+At this juncture, while the enemy light cruiser was still in sight,
+there popped up close to the boat the periscope of a submarine. The
+submarine rose to the surface, and to the delight of our men proved to
+be British--the E4, under the command of Captain E.W. Leir. She took
+off the British sailors and a few sample Huns, and, not having
+accommodation for more, left the other Germans in the boat, having
+first provided them with biscuit, water, and a compass.
+
+It was ascertained afterwards that this boat never reached Heligoland,
+though that island was but a few miles distant and the weather
+remained fine. The probable explanation is that the Germans,
+recognising the English build of the boat, concluded that she
+contained British sailors, so sank it with gunfire and left the men to
+drown, as is the custom of the Huns.
+
+And now to turn back to the flagship and the _Fearless_ and the main
+force of destroyers, which were engaging the enemy destroyers and
+torpedo-boats. Shortly before 8 a.m. a German light cruiser was
+sighted on the _Arethusa's_ port bow. The _Arethusa_ at once attacked
+her; but the German was apparently unwilling to continue the fight
+and made away to the eastward.
+
+But while the _Arethusa_ was engaging her yet another German light
+cruiser, identified as the _Frauenlob_, appeared on the scene, and she
+was quite ready for a duel with her opposite number. The _Arethusa_
+engaged her closely, the two ships for a while steering on converging
+courses. The _Arethusa_ at last closed the range to 3500 yards. The
+_Frauenlob's_ fire was remarkably accurate. Within ten minutes the
+_Arethusa_ was hit thirty-five times, with a loss of twelve killed,
+including the flag lieutenant, who was on the bridge, and twenty
+wounded. The _Arethusa_ all the while was pouring in a deadly fire
+with her six-inch guns, and the _Frauenlob_ must have been in a sorry
+plight. At last a six-inch shell, striking her on her bridge, knocked
+her out. For she at once turned and steamed away to the eastward as
+fast as she was able. A curious incident occurred in the course of
+this duel between the two ships. The _Arethusa's_ cook, who at the
+time was in the galley preparing the men's breakfast--for a ship's
+domestic arrangements cannot be disturbed by battle--had one of his
+arms shot away. He might have bled to death, but, seeing an empty
+cigarette tin, promptly clapped it on the stump and so saved his life.
+
+Heligoland, only five miles distant, now became visible, looming large
+through the mist. The _Arethusa_ and the destroyers had accomplished
+their work, for the enemy light cruisers, destroyers, and
+torpedo-boats were all seen to be hurrying home. The Harwich Force,
+its object achieved, turned round and steered westward for England,
+for with crippled vessels the danger of remaining longer in enemy
+waters was, of course, very great. The _Arethusa_ had been severely
+knocked about. All her torpedo tubes had been smashed. Her feed tank
+had been holed, and the engineer commander reported that he could now
+only get twelve knots instead of thirty out of her. The enemy had also
+employed shrapnel against her with such effect that her bridge and
+upper works were as indented as a nutmeg-grater; and on almost any
+part of her decks one could stoop and pick up a handful of shrapnel
+fragments, so thick they lay. But in a short time the ship had been
+cleared up, disabled guns had been repaired, and the casualties had
+been replaced by other men.
+
+About one hour after the Harwich Force had turned and started for
+home, the _Arethusa_, limping along, picked up a wireless message from
+the destroyer _Lurcher_, attached to the Harwich submarine flotilla,
+reporting that she was being pursued by five enemy light cruisers off
+Heligoland. On receiving this message Commodore Tyrwhitt immediately
+turned back to support the _Lurcher_. The peril of taking such a
+course with a crippled flagship needs no explaining, but the old
+traditions of the sea make a commander very loth, in any
+circumstances, to refrain from going to the aid of a friend in
+difficulties. In the course of this war our ships have often thus
+hurried to the succour of others in the face of fearful odds.
+Over-rashness may have been displayed on occasion. But let us regard
+another side of the question. What confidence and spirit it must give
+to our men to feel that, if menaced by deadly peril, they can rely
+upon their comrades to come to their help if it is humanly possible to
+do so! A Navy that has no soul, in which a commander will coldly
+calculate the exact risk before deciding whether the game is quite
+worth the candle, will never achieve great things.
+
+So the flagship, the _Fearless_, and the two destroyer flotillas,
+having turned, steamed back to the eastward for one hour and were once
+more within a few miles of Heligoland. They found themselves on a sea
+empty of ships; no more wireless messages from the _Lurcher_ reached
+the _Arethusa_, and as nothing could be seen or heard of that vessel,
+the quest was at last abandoned and the order was given to steam once
+more to the westward for home.
+
+The mist now gradually thickened. At about 10 a.m., shortly after the
+squadron had turned, a light cruiser was seen coming out of the fog on
+the _Arethusa's_ port quarter. For a second or so it was thought that
+she was one of our own ships. On being challenged she flashed some
+signals. Then a ripple of flame ran along her sides, and she displayed
+her true colours by opening fire on the flagship. The light cruiser
+_Fearless_ and the destroyers, though they had but few torpedoes left,
+attacked her in a most gallant fashion and succeeded in driving her
+off. But, doubtless knowing that the _Arethusa_ was in a crippled
+condition and that other German ships were coming up, she soon
+returned to resume the attack. And now another enemy light cruiser
+suddenly loomed on the _Arethusa's_ starboard quarter and joined in
+the fight. The British ships were now fighting a retiring action, our
+destroyers doing splendid work, zigzagging over the sea and losing no
+opportunity of vigorously attacking the enemy, thus covering the
+retirement.
+
+But now there came up on our squadron's front yet another enemy light
+cruiser, the _Mainz_, to take part in the action. So our ships were
+being attacked on all sides, and despite the bravery of the defence
+the situation must have appeared somewhat desperate. Our destroyers
+attacked the new arrivals, giving them no respite. The _Mainz_ put up
+a great fight against the destroyers that were harassing her. Her fire
+was accurate; she put two of the destroyers out of action.
+
+At this juncture there came up out of the mist our own 1st Light
+Cruiser Squadron, and with its assistance the _Mainz_ was finished off
+and sunk. Shortly afterwards our battle cruiser squadron hove in
+sight. This brought the enemy's attack on our light force to an end,
+and the German ships turned and made for home. But they had fallen
+into a trap from which there was no escape. The _Arethusa_, after she
+had passed through our light cruiser squadron, came suddenly out of
+the fog into blue sky and glorious sunshine. Behind her to the
+eastward rose like a wall the dense fog-bank concealing all from view;
+but there was heard coming out of the fog-bank the roar of a
+tremendous cannonading. It was the roar of the guns of Beatty's ships
+which attacked and sank the remaining two German light cruisers.
+
+The fight was over for the ships of the Harwich Force; they slowly
+steamed homeward, the _Arethusa_ crawling ever slower, the salt water
+getting into her boilers, while such of our destroyers as had been
+badly damaged were being towed back. But none of the ships was lost;
+they all got safely into harbour. At 7 p.m. the _Arethusa_ was
+compelled to stop her engines, and two hours later she was taken in
+tow by the _Hogue_ and taken to Chatham, where I happened to be when
+she arrived. Looking at her battered condition, one wondered that her
+casualties had not been even heavier than they were. I wish that I
+could have supplemented this brief description with the narratives of
+some of the destroyer captains who had fought their ships so
+gallantly. Among other honours given, the D.S.O. was conferred on
+Captain W.F. Blunt, the captain of the _Fearless_ light cruiser, in
+recognition of his repeated vigorous and dashing attacks on the enemy.
+
+In the course of this action we had not lost a ship, and our ships
+that had been damaged were repaired and at sea again within a few
+weeks; whereas the enemy had lost three light cruisers and one
+destroyer, and withdrew with many ships badly damaged.
+
+As for the _Arethusa_, her repairs were made good at Chatham, and a
+month later she was able to rejoin the Harwich Force. She had further
+adventures and narrow escapes, but her life, if stirring and most
+useful to her country, was a short one, and her end was tragic. In
+February 1916, only eighteen months after she had been launched, while
+returning from an attempt to intercept an enemy force, she was struck
+by a mine off Felixstowe, and her engines were disabled by the
+explosion, which killed eleven men in her boiler-room. A south-east
+gale was blowing and a high sea was running. Attempts were made to
+take her in tow, but the hawsers parted, and she drifted helplessly on
+to the Cutler shoal in a sinking condition. Her back was broken, and
+she fell in two.
+
+A dreadful incident of this tragedy was the attempt of a stoker,
+maddened by pain, to escape from below by climbing up the inside of
+the funnel. He was seen appearing over the top of the funnel, and was
+helped down. His clothes had all been burnt off; his injuries were
+terrible, and he shortly afterwards died. The fate of the stokers
+trapped below, when disaster comes in this fashion, is a feature of
+naval warfare horrible to contemplate.
+
+One of the _Arethusa's_ stokers, by the way, must have been a very
+powerful sleeper. While the ship was breaking up and all the
+survivors--so it was supposed--had been taken off, a man appeared on a
+portion of the wreck, waving his hand for help. He was rescued, and
+proved to be a stoker, who had been sleeping below tranquilly through
+the explosion, the wreck, and the breaking up of the ship. It was only
+when he was awash and the water was pouring over his face that he woke
+to the situation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OTHER ACTIONS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+OTHER ACTIONS
+
+    The battle of the Dogger Bank--The sinking of the
+      _Bluecher_--The Lowestoft raid--The action off Texel.
+
+
+In the actions that were fought in the North Sea whenever the heavy
+ships of the enemy came out and encountered our own, the light Harwich
+Force played its part in harassing the enemy and in invaluable
+reconnaissance. In the battle of the Dogger Bank, January 28, 1915,
+its object was to sight the enemy battle cruisers and to put our own
+upon them. It will be remembered that on this occasion the German
+battle cruisers turned and hurried towards home as soon as they
+sighted our ships. The battle therefore resolved itself into a stern
+chase on the part of Admiral Beatty's fleet, which gradually gained on
+the enemy and closed the range. The enemy's destroyers covering the
+German retirement delivered vigorous attacks in order to delay the
+pursuit, but were driven back by our destroyers of the Harwich
+flotillas. When the German armoured cruiser _Bluecher_, which had been
+damaged badly by our fire, dropped astern of the German line, the
+_Indomitable_ was detached to finish her off, and while thus engaged
+was screened by the 1st Destroyer Division of the Harwich force. The
+_Arethusa_ gave the _coup de grace_ to the _Bluecher_ with a torpedo
+and sank her. The _Arethusa_ and the destroyers were picking up the
+survivors of the _Bluecher_ when a Taube flew overhead and attacked
+the boats with bombs, killing Germans struggling in the water as well
+as some of our own men. So the _Arethusa_ recalled the boats.
+Otherwise more of the _Bluecher's_ crew might have been saved. The
+final duty of the Harwich Force on this occasion was to screen the
+_Indomitable_ while she towed the disabled _Lion_ back to the Grand
+Fleet base in the Firth of Forth.
+
+During the Lowestoft raid of April 25, 1916, while the German battle
+cruisers were bombarding our coast, the Harwich Force did good work.
+The _Conquest_, flying the Commodore's pennant, the _Cleopatra_, and
+sixteen destroyers were sent out to distract the attention of the
+enemy and, if possible, torpedo some of his ships. While carrying out
+this duty they suffered severely. They sighted four enemy battle
+cruisers screened by light cruisers and destroyers. They made a
+vigorous attack upon this screening force, and this compelled the
+German battle cruisers, which at the time were bombarding Lowestoft,
+to cover their own light craft by turning their attention on the
+Harwich Force. The latter, now exposed to a heavy fire from the enemy
+big ships as well as from the light cruisers and destroyers, had to
+turn and retire.
+
+It was while our ships were thus turning, and were, so to speak,
+bunched up in the loop formed by the turning operation, that they
+suffered severely from the enemy salvoes. The _Conquest_ was hit by
+four or five twelve-inch shells, and lost forty-seven of her crew
+killed and wounded. Later, the _Penelope_ was torpedoed by an enemy
+submarine. The explosion carried away her stern-post and rudder; the
+whole after part of her had practically been blown off. But she
+managed to steam back to Harwich at twenty-two knots, steering with
+her engines. Other ships also were hit. But the Harwich Force, at any
+rate, had drawn the fire of the Germans from Lowestoft, and so saved
+that town from a heavier bombardment than it received. The Huns, as
+was their wont in these raids, carried on the bombardment for half an
+hour or so, and then turned and hurried homewards as fast as they
+could steam, for they had no desire to encounter the ships from the
+Grand Fleet.
+
+In the battle of Jutland the Harwich Force was not called upon to take
+a part. However, eight destroyers belonging to the Harwich Force had
+been detached to join Admiral Beatty before that action. These took
+part in the battle, screening the battle cruisers and delivering
+torpedo attacks. One destroyer, the _Turbulent_, was lost. Vessels of
+the Harwich Force, lent for the time to Sir Roger Keyes, also took
+part in the famous attack on Zeebrugge.
+
+Among the many interesting minor actions fought by sections of the
+Harwich Force was that off the island of Texel on October 17, 1914.
+The light cruiser _Undaunted_, with the destroyers _Loyal_, _Legion_,
+_Lance_, and _Lennox_, while patrolling, sighted four German
+torpedo-boats, which turned away and endeavoured to escape when they
+realised that the ships approaching them were British. Our destroyers,
+which were screening the _Undaunted_, now changed their formation to
+single line ahead and gave chase. By 2 p.m. they were within range of
+the enemy, and by 3.20 they had sunk all four. First the two leading
+destroyers, _Lennox_ and _Lance_, attacked and sank the leading enemy
+torpedo-boat. Then the destroyers, cutting in between the enemy ships,
+sank them in turn. During the action the _Undaunted_ kept outside
+effective torpedo range and engaged the enemy at long range, attacking
+whichsoever ship happened to be nearest to her at the time. The enemy
+losses were very heavy; only forty-seven men were picked up by our
+boats, of whom many afterwards died of their wounds. On this occasion
+the enemy fought with great gallantry against a far superior force.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE CONVOYS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE CONVOYS
+
+    The Beef Trip--Escorting mine-layers--Encounters with enemy
+      mine-sweepers--Sinking of the _Meteor_--The _Centaur_
+      mined.
+
+
+The world is beginning to understand how successful was the British
+Navy in circumventing the enemy's submarine campaign, and so
+preserving this country from famine, while at the same time so closely
+blockading (so soon as our politicians permitted this) the enemy's
+coasts that Germany was isolated and her position became desperate.
+Our Navy combines brains with bravery, and cunning indeed were some of
+the devices planned to outwit and trap the Hun. Of these devices but
+little is known outside the Navy, and much probably never will be
+known, for there must be secrets well worth the keeping until the
+League of Nations or the millennium makes future wars impossible. Sir
+Arthur Conan Doyle, in a recently published, prophetic short story,
+written before the war, pictures vividly to us an England beaten,
+compelled to submit to an ignominious peace, by a very small Power
+that makes unrestricted use of submarine warfare. He foresaw the
+danger, but thankfully acknowledges in his preface that he did not
+foresee the extraordinary ingenuity with which our Navy overcame this
+danger.
+
+Among its other functions, the Harwich Force, in a variety of ways,
+took an important part in this task of keeping the seas open to
+ourselves and closed to our enemies.
+
+Firstly, to deal with that essential duty--the convoying of merchant
+vessels. This was part of the routine work of the destroyers of the
+Harwich Force. For some time the destroyers of the Force did all the
+escorting between Dover and Flamborough Head. They used also to convoy
+vessels along our East Coast, across the North Sea, and occasionally
+through the Straits down Channel to the westward. For example,
+throughout the war they kept open the traffic between England and
+Holland. This particular duty was known in the Navy as the "Beef
+Trip," owing to the fact that in the first stages of the war the
+convoyed vessels were largely employed in the carrying of meat from
+Holland to England. It was a dangerous duty; enemy minefields had to
+be traversed, and the convoys were liable to be attacked by
+submarines, light craft, and seaplanes, for the Germans were ever on
+the lookout to intercept them.
+
+The following method was pursued--and be it remembered that no lights
+were shown by destroyers or merchantmen. At night the destroyers and
+the mine-sweepers would pass through a swept channel off Orfordness to
+an appointed rendezvous outside, where they fell in with their convoy,
+which sometimes was made up of as many as twenty merchantmen, but more
+usually of about twelve. The destroyers now took up a position to
+protect the convoy, surrounding it on all sides. The merchantmen were
+then formed into a column, three abreast, and proceeded to steam
+across the North Sea, a flotilla-leader and a convoy-guide heading
+the column, another flotilla-leader following close astern, and the
+destroyers on either flank zigzagging about, and ever watchful for the
+appearance of an enemy. When the convoy, on the further side of the
+North Sea, approached the area that had been mined by the Germans, the
+formation was altered. The convoy formed in line ahead, the destroyers
+tucking themselves in, so to speak, as close to the line of
+merchantmen as possible. In this narrow formation, with the destroyer
+mine-sweepers and the converted merchantmen mine-sweepers leading the
+way, their paravanes over the stern set at twenty feet to cut adrift
+all the mines encountered, the convoy steamed across the deadly enemy
+minefield to the comparative safety of the Dutch territorial waters
+beyond. Here the merchantmen parted from their escort, and steamed to
+the ports for which they were bound. The escorting destroyers then
+picked up the westward-bound merchantmen that were awaiting them, and
+convoyed them back to the English coast, using the same formations
+that had been employed on the outward voyage.
+
+At the beginning of the war the convoys of merchantmen were at times
+not punctual in arriving at the rendezvous on the Dutch coast, thus
+adding to the risk of discovery by enemy submarines. But before long
+the merchant captains understood what was required of them, and all
+went smoothly. It is scarcely necessary to say that the route followed
+across the North Sea and through the enemy's minefields was ever being
+changed, so as to lessen the chance of attack. When the risks
+attending these operations are taken into consideration, the
+casualties were few among the convoyed merchantmen. In the course of
+the war about six of them only were lost on this route. It is strange
+that none of the mine-sweepers that led the convoys and exposed
+themselves while clearing the way for the others fell victims to the
+mines. But, of course, the mine-sweepers that have been recently
+employed are of very shallow draught, and pass safely over most of the
+mines, especially at high water.
+
+On the other hand, the escorting destroyers suffered heavily; several
+were sunk by mines or submarines, while still more were severely
+damaged. On one disastrous night in December 1917, three destroyers
+were lost while crossing the enemy's minefields with a convoy. First
+one destroyer struck a mine and was blown up. A second destroyer
+coming up to pick up the crew from the water struck another mine and
+also sank. A third destroyer then hurried to the rescue, only to share
+the same fate. Out of the three crews, only about one-fourth of the
+men were ultimately saved.
+
+In this short summary of the doings of the Harwich Force in the war,
+it is not possible to describe a tithe of the heroic deeds performed
+by the men of that force, or to mention the names of those who
+performed them. But I have received a letter from a member of the crew
+of one of these three lost destroyers who signs himself, "A grateful
+survivor of that night," from which I propose to quote a few passages,
+for it exemplifies the spirit of the British Navy and the just pride
+that the "band of brothers" who fought under Tyrwhitt take in the
+Harwich Force. I may say that eye-witnesses confirm all that my
+correspondent writes. "_Four destroyers were on the scene, SURPRISE,
+TORRENT, TORNADO, and RADIANT. The last-named alone returned. The most
+gallant rescue-work was performed by the RADIANT, under the command of
+Commander Fleetwood Nash, D.S.O., whose cool and skilful handling of
+his ship under dangerous conditions was the means of saving so many
+lives. Most gallant was the conduct of the sub-lieutenant and the men
+who went into the ice-cold water among the struggling and drowning
+men, at great risk to themselves, to save lives. Exceptional coolness,
+too, was displayed by the engine-room and stokehole branch of the
+RADIANT while rescue work was being performed in the dangerous area.
+That all survivors volunteered, on their own, to serve in the Harwich
+Force, although some of them had been mined or torpedoed two or three
+times previously, speaks for the splendid type of men who man the
+ships of the Harwich Force._"
+
+The laying of mines and the destruction of one another's minefields
+used to keep the Germans and ourselves well occupied, and the scraps
+that occurred between craft engaged in these operations were very
+frequent. It was one of the regular duties of the Harwich Force to
+escort our own mine-layers and to protect our minefields--which
+extended across the Bay of Heligoland from Holland to Denmark--against
+the interference of enemy mine-sweepers.
+
+The following will serve as an example of the encounters that so often
+took place. In August 1917 a section of the Force, which throughout
+the night had been supporting our own mine-layers (the latter had
+been busy laying mines on our minefield), on the following morning,
+while steaming close along the edge of the minefield in somewhat foggy
+weather, sighted about eight enemy mine-sweepers, undoing the night's
+work and energetically sweeping up our mines. The fire of our
+destroyers sank two of the mine-sweepers, and the others, though badly
+damaged, were enabled, owing to their light draught, to escape across
+the minefield, where our deeper craft could not follow. The
+mine-sweepers were escorted by destroyers and submarines, which did
+their utmost to torpedo our ships, but failed to accomplish their
+purpose. Sometimes, however, the enemy had better luck, as when they
+torpedoed the _Mentor_ while she was escorting one of our mine-layers
+in the Heligoland Bight. A huge hole was blown right through the
+_Mentor_, from one side to the other. Fortunately, the sea was smooth,
+and she contrived to return home.
+
+On the other hand, the enemy's mine-layers were ever being hunted down
+by the Harwich Force, and the sinkings of them were not few. The first
+incident of the war in the North Sea was the sinking of a German
+mine-layer off Lowestoft by the light cruiser _Amphion_. The story of
+the _Meteor_ is worthy of note. This enemy mine-layer, disguised as an
+innocent old tramp, laid a number of mines in the Cromarty Firth.
+Having completed her work, she started on her homeward journey, but
+attracted the attention and suspicion of the captain of the _Ramsey_,
+the armed boarding steamer which lay off Cromarty. So he sent off a
+boat to board and question her. On this the _Meteor_ let loose a
+torpedo and blew the _Ramsey_ up. The _Meteor_ got away safely, but
+her triumph was short-lived. The Harwich Force, which was patrolling
+on the Jutland coast, fell in with her, as she was nearing home, off
+Horn Reef, early in the afternoon. She was being escorted by two
+Zeppelins. As she could not escape from the British patrol, she blew
+herself up. On this occasion the Germans seem to have been caught
+napping; for at eight o'clock that morning enemy seaplanes had flown
+over our patrol and bombed it. The enemy therefore should have
+received early information of the approach of a British force, and it
+is strange that German ships, of which there were many within call,
+did not come out to support the _Meteor_ and attack the patrol.
+
+To our Navy, an enemy on the surface is a welcome sight, for with him
+one can fight a fair fight. But the unseen mines of the enemy, lying
+in wait to bring about disaster in a second, are another matter. I
+imagine that there cannot be a sailor who does not curse the inventor
+of mines. It is true that we got our own back on the enemy with our
+own mines; but a good many ships of the Harwich Force have suffered
+from mines in the course of the war. In a large majority of cases the
+ships struck by mines did not sink, were got home, were repaired, and
+fought again. Some of our ships, now looking spick and span, with
+nothing to show that they have ever suffered, have been mined several
+times. The numerous watertight compartments into which a warship is
+divided keep her afloat even after terrible injuries.
+
+Thus the _Centaur_, light cruiser, was mined in the Bight of
+Heligoland. The mine struck her forward, and so damaged her bows that
+her bulkheads would have given way had she attempted to steam ahead,
+so she steamed back across the North Sea stern first. The _Centaur_
+was mined on yet another occasion, during the great gale of October
+1917. The Harwich Force had gone out to look for the enemy--on
+information received, as the police would say. A terrific westerly
+gale was encountered by the ships on their homeward voyage. All lost
+their topmasts, their wireless thus being put out of action. At noon,
+while the gale was at its worst, a loud explosion was heard on the
+_Centaur_--at that time the flagship of the Harwich Force. She had
+been badly mined aft. It must have been an anxious moment, for in such
+fearful weather her consorts could not have come to her assistance had
+she been totally disabled. One of her two condenser doors had been
+broken in by the concussion. Fortunately, the other door held, and she
+was enabled to steam home with one engine.
+
+As an example of the way in which a naval ship can be mined and yet be
+little the worse for it, may be mentioned the case of a Harwich
+destroyer which struck a mine off Orfordness in April 1916. The
+explosion blew her stern off and threw her four-inch gun up into the
+air. It did not go overboard, but fell back upon her deck. No lives
+were lost; no one was even hurt. She got back to port, was repaired,
+and very soon was at work again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ESCORTING SEAPLANES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+ESCORTING SEAPLANES
+
+    The Cuxhaven raid--The Sylt raid--Enemy patrol boats
+      sunk--Loss of the _Medusa_--The flagship rams an enemy
+      destroyer--Saving of the _Landrail_.
+
+
+The Harwich Force also took its part in the numerous air raids that
+were made from the close of 1914 onwards on the German mainland and
+islands. It was perilous work not only for the seaplanes but for the
+seaplane-carriers and the ships forming the escort; for, after the
+seaplanes had been launched and had flown away on their mission of
+destruction, these ships had to repair to an appointed rendezvous off
+the German coast, to there await (often for a long time and sometimes
+in vain) the return of the seaplanes and pick them up. A description
+of a few of these air-raid expeditions will illustrate this.
+
+It will be remembered that British seaplanes bombed Cuxhaven on
+Christmas Day, 1914. On Christmas Eve a force consisting of the
+flagship _Arethusa_, another light cruiser, a flotilla of destroyers,
+and three seaplane-carrying ships, carrying the seaplanes, set out
+from Harwich in a northeast gale. It was a very dark night, and on
+nearing the further side of the North Sea the ships picked their way
+to their destination by the lead, following the line of ten-fathom
+soundings. At four in the morning they passed some outpost vessels,
+who doubtless detected them and signalled their presence to the enemy,
+for a great burst of German wireless was immediately observed. At
+dawn, on reaching the appointed position twelve miles to the north of
+Heligoland, they found themselves in a flat calm. The seaplanes were
+hoisted out, rose from the water at once, and flew off in the
+direction of Cuxhaven--probably to the relief of all concerned. For in
+the early days of the war our seaplanes were not so reliable as those
+which we employed later. They not infrequently refused to rise for a
+considerable time, and floundered about on the sea helplessly, causing
+a dangerous delay in enemy waters. The flotilla now steamed to an
+appointed rendezvous on the west side of Heligoland, and there awaited
+the return of the seaplanes. While they were thus waiting, our ships
+were attacked by enemy submarines, two Zeppelins, and two seaplanes.
+
+But no enemy surface craft came up, though it was, of course,
+expected that the warning given by the outpost vessels would have
+brought the German ships out in force. On this occasion all the
+seaplanes returned safely and were picked up; and at noon the flotilla
+steamed back, with no casualties to report, to Harwich. The fact
+remains that the Harwich Force stayed within a radius of twenty miles
+from Heligoland from 5 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. without any attempt being
+made by the High Sea Fleet to molest it.
+
+But our air-raiding expeditions did not always enjoy this good
+fortune. For example, what is known as the Sylt raid was attended with
+loss of ships and seaplanes. The objectives of this seaplane attack
+were the enemy Zeppelin sheds at Tondern, on the Slesvig mainland. It
+was a raid that might have led to great events, as the British and
+German battle-cruiser squadrons were both out on the North Sea at the
+time, the first to cover the raiding ships, the latter to attack them.
+But the great sea battle that might have been fought was not fought
+because the Germans so willed it, and retired behind the shelter of
+their minefields before Beatty could get at them.
+
+At an early hour of the morning of March 25, 1916, the Harwich Force,
+consisting of the light cruisers _Cleopatra_, _Undaunted_, _Penelope_,
+and _Conquest_ (_Cleopatra_ flying the Commodore's pennant), a number
+of destroyers, and the seaplane-carrier _Vindex_, arrived off the west
+coast of Sylt Island. A short time before reaching the spot at which
+it was proposed to hoist out the seaplanes, the _Cleopatra_, screened
+by half the destroyer force, and leading the _Vindex_, proceeded in
+advance, leaving the rest of the force to await her return. When the
+selected spot was reached, the track of a torpedo was observed to be
+approaching the _Cleopatra_. It was avoided by turning towards and
+following its track. The destroyers were now detailed to keep the
+German submarine down while _Cleopatra_ and _Vindex_ stopped to hoist
+out the five seaplanes. The morning had been bright, but a dense
+snowstorm came on shortly after the seaplanes had been hoisted out.
+However, the weather cleared for a while, and all the seaplanes had
+got away by 5.30 a.m. But further snowstorms that followed made the
+flying conditions very difficult, and the seaplanes lost their
+bearings while searching for their objective.
+
+The _Cleopatra_, the _Vindex_, and the escorting destroyers now
+rejoined the remainder of the force at the appointed rendezvous, and
+awaited the return of the seaplanes. At 7 a.m. the first seaplane
+returned and was hoisted in, and a little later a second was picked
+up--the only two of the five that ever did come back.
+
+As the time appointed for the return of the seaplanes had passed, and
+there were no signs of the others, the force proceeded in search of
+the three missing ones, the cruisers penetrating the channel inside
+the Horn Reef, while the destroyers were ordered to the south-east to
+spread out and get in as near as possible to the German coast, so that
+they might protect against enemy attack and pick up any damaged
+seaplanes that might arrive. The search was fruitless, but it led to
+various incidents.
+
+The destroyers steamed in near enough to bombard the coast. Close
+under the shore, near the German harbour of List, they engaged enemy
+patrol vessels and aircraft. They sank two of the patrol boats (armed
+trawlers) and brought down a seaplane. While our boats were picking up
+survivors, some of these patrol boats threw out such dense clouds of
+smoke to screen themselves that, in the obscurity thereby caused, a
+collision took place between two of the British destroyers, the
+_Laverock_ ramming the _Medusa_ and holing her badly in the
+engine-room. The _Laverock_, despite her injuries, was able to proceed
+under her own steam, but the _Medusa_ was wholly disabled.
+
+In the meanwhile, urgent wireless messages from the Admiralty were
+received ordering the Commodore to withdraw. To remain longer on the
+coast with a crippled ship in tow would be to invite the attack of a
+superior enemy force; in fact, it was known that strong forces were
+already putting to sea from the German bases; so at 11 a.m. the
+Commodore ordered the entire force to withdraw to the westward. The
+flotilla-leader _Lightfoot_ took the _Medusa_ in tow.
+
+At the beginning of the homeward voyage the enemy seaplanes circled
+round the ships, but were kept off by our high-angle guns. One plucky
+German airman, however, despite the shrapnel that was bursting all
+round him, made a most determined attack. He dropped about eight bombs
+and very nearly hit the _Conquest_. But the ever-increasing strength
+of the wind, and the signs of worse weather coming, at last made the
+German airmen turn to seek shelter on their own land.
+
+The flotilla soon found itself steaming in the teeth of a strong
+south-west gale, violent rain-squalls alternating with snow-blizzards,
+and a high sea running. Progress was slow, for the speed of the
+flotilla was necessarily limited to that at which their crippled
+consort could be towed, and that speed, as the wind ever hardened, was
+gradually reduced from ten to only six knots.
+
+At 4 p.m. the flotilla sighted ahead of it, steaming to the southward,
+the ships of Sir D. Beatty's squadron of cruisers that had been sent
+to support it. The delay caused by the wait for the seaplanes that did
+not return and by the crippled state of the _Medusa_ had brought about
+a dangerous situation. The mission of the battle cruisers had been to
+cruise to the south-west and prevent the enemy from attacking the
+Harwich Force while the seaplane raid was in progress, and, at the
+conclusion of the raid, to cover the withdrawal of that force, by
+following it to the westward at a certain distance astern. Had all
+gone well, the battle cruisers should have had the Harwich Force well
+to the westward of them by 9 a.m., whereas it was only appearing in
+sight towards sundown. It was a serious matter to risk our valuable
+battle cruisers in covering the slow retirement, at night, through
+enemy waters, of a force retarded by its lame ducks. It was known that
+a large number of the enemy's torpedo craft were out to intercept our
+forces, and these would find easy targets in our big ships. But it had
+to be done, and the battle cruisers covered the passing of the
+Harwich Force through the danger zone.
+
+To return to the Harwich Force. Shortly after the battle cruisers had
+been sighted, the Commodore altered the course to the north, thus
+considerably lessening the chance of our ships getting in touch with
+the enemy who were coming out of Wilhelmshaven or some other German
+base to the southward.
+
+This alteration of course brought the wind and sea on the _Medusa's_
+quarter, causing her to override repeatedly, and so put a great strain
+on the towing hawser each time that it tautened out. No hawser could
+stand this long, and it promptly parted. Further attempts were made,
+but it became obvious that to tow the _Medusa_ home would not be
+possible. It was therefore decided to abandon her, and the order was
+given to take the crew off her and then to sink her. That this was a
+difficult and dangerous operation to carry out with so tremendous a
+sea running, and on so dark a night, needs no explanation. But it was
+done, and that, too, without the loss of a man, Lieutenant-Commander
+Butler, who was in command of the destroyer _Lassoo_, got his ship
+alongside the _Medusa_. In order to effect his purpose he had to ram
+the _Medusa_ in the forecastle, and to continue steaming ahead so as
+to preserve contact with her until he had taken all her crew on board
+his own ship. It was a piece of magnificent seamanship, and
+Lieutenant-Commander Butler well earned the D.S.O. which was conferred
+on him.
+
+So as to minimise the possibility of friend being mistaken for foe in
+so dark and stormy a night, with no ships showing lights, the
+destroyers were sent on in advance, while the light cruisers proceeded
+in line ahead, _Cleopatra_, the flagship, leading; the speed, now that
+the _Medusa_ had been abandoned, being increased to fifteen knots. A
+northerly course was still steered by the force, but the _Lightfoot_
+and _Lassoo_, with the crew of the abandoned _Medusa_, were ordered to
+steam direct to Harwich.
+
+Shortly after 10 p.m. a vessel steaming fast was sighted on
+_Cleopatra's_ port bow. Captain F.P. Loder Symonds, at that time in
+command of the _Cleopatra_, observing that showers of sparks were
+coming from this vessel's funnel, showing that she was burning coal
+and not oil fuel, rightly assumed that she was an enemy; so he put his
+helm hard a-starboard and went full speed ahead to intercept her.
+Very soon afterwards two destroyers were distinguished steaming across
+the _Cleopatra's_ bow at right angles. Captain Loder Symonds promptly
+reversed his helm and steadied his ship to ram. There was about a
+boat's length only between the two destroyers. The leading destroyer
+just got clear; but the _Cleopatra_ struck the second destroyer full
+amidships and practically at right angles. There was heard a violent
+explosion, a tremendous noise of escaping steam, and the crash of
+rending metal; and then it was seen that the _Cleopatra_ had run right
+through the destroyer, cutting her in two. The two halves were seen
+drifting past the _Cleopatra_, one half on her port, the other on her
+starboard side. The _Cleopatra_ then altered her course to attack the
+other destroyer, and both the flagship and the _Undaunted_, which was
+the cruiser next astern to her, opened fire; but the enemy escaped,
+quickly disappearing in the darkness. The sinking of the German
+destroyer through the prompt decision taken by Captain Loder Symonds
+is recognised by those who were present as having been a remarkably
+fine piece of work on his part.
+
+The rapid turnings of the flagship during her attack on the enemy
+destroyers were naturally carried out at considerable risk of
+collision with the light cruisers that were following her. The
+_Undaunted_, the next in the line, did run into the _Cleopatra_ with
+sufficient force to partly cripple herself. So she was ordered to
+leave the line and steam to the Tyne.
+
+Early in the following morning it was definitely known that the enemy
+battle cruisers had come out; so by 9 a.m. the Harwich Force, in
+accordance with orders, had joined our own battle cruiser fleet, and
+with it swept to the southward again in the hope of meeting the enemy.
+But the German big ships were not to be tempted into giving action,
+and withdrew to their base before our ships could get near them.
+
+Accordingly, at 1 p.m. Admiral Beatty's battle cruisers turned to the
+north, bound for their base, while the Harwich Force steered directly
+for Harwich, which was reached that evening without the occurrence of
+any further incident. In the course of the operations we had lost one
+destroyer and three seaplanes, but the enemy had lost one destroyer,
+two armed patrol boats, and one seaplane. Probably some damage was
+also inflicted on the enemy by our seaplanes, for during the raid a
+German wireless message from some shore station was intercepted by the
+_Cleopatra_, to the effect that a bombardment was in progress.
+
+It will be remembered that a subsequent air raid, which was carried
+out by a squadron from the Grand Fleet in the summer of 1918, on the
+same Zeppelin sheds at Tondern which were the objectives of the Sylt
+raid, was attended with complete success. The sheds were wrecked by
+the bombs from our aircraft, and two Zeppelins were destroyed.
+
+As our air raids became more frequent the vigilance of the enemy
+submarines increased. Many were the narrow escapes of our escorts.
+Thus, in January 1916, the _Arethusa_, with some destroyers, was
+escorting the seaplane-carrier _Vindex_ to the mouth of the Ems river.
+Just before dawn the vessels stopped in order that the seaplanes
+might be hoisted out. The first intimation that enemy submarines were
+about was the track of a torpedo racing at the _Arethusa_ through the
+darkness. The torpedo passed right under the _Arethusa's_ ram, missing
+it by very little. A second torpedo followed, which was avoided by
+prompt use of the helm. So the flagship was saved, but only to be
+mined and sunk within sight of her base a few weeks later.
+
+Our ships, as I have shown, always stood by a consort in distress, and
+brought her safely back to her base if it were possible to do so, even
+at the greatest risk to themselves; and there always was a great risk
+of envelopment and destruction by a superior force whenever a disabled
+ship was being slowly towed through enemy waters. Our crippled ships
+of the Harwich Force were never allowed to fall into the enemy's
+hands. Many are the stories of the saving of our ships in the North
+Sea during the war.
+
+Let us take, for example, the case of the _Landrail_. In May 1915, off
+Borkum, while the seaplanes were being hoisted out from the
+seaplane-carrier for a raid on the German coast, one of the usual
+dense North Sea fogs rolled up. While the ships were shrouded in this,
+the light cruiser _Undaunted_ was run into by the destroyer
+_Landrail_. The _Landrail's_ bows were smashed in, practically
+telescoped. In a photograph taken shortly afterwards she presented an
+extraordinary appearance, a large portion of her forward deck hanging
+over the wreckage where once had been her stem, like an apron. She
+was towed from Borkum to Harwich stern first. During the voyage heavy
+weather came on. She parted wire hawser after hawser, until there
+could have been few hawsers left on board the ships that were
+convoying her. Destroyer after destroyer, the _Mentor_, _Aurora_, and
+others, took her in tow in turn as the hawsers parted; and, finally,
+the _Arethusa_ brought her in. Fog in war-time is not the least of the
+perils in the North Sea, and, considering the nature of the work that
+had to be carried on, fog or no fog, it is wonderful that collisions
+were not more frequent.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PATROLS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE PATROLS
+
+    Raids on enemy trawler fleets--The unsleeping
+      watch--Patrolling the Channel barrage--Patrolling the
+      mine-net barrage--The patrols in action.
+
+
+In their indiscriminate warfare against merchantmen and fishermen the
+Germans generally sank our vessels (being unable to carry them into
+their own ports across the seas which our Navy so well guarded), often
+leaving the crews to drown, and on many occasions disgracing their
+flag--which will ever be regarded as a symbol of dishonour among the
+nations--by firing at helpless men struggling in the water. When we
+captured an enemy merchantman we did not waste valuable material by
+sinking her, but brought her as a prize into one of our ports, while
+we treated the captured crews even too well. But our captures were not
+many after we had swept up such vessels as were upon the seas at the
+opening of the war; for, later, our command of the sea confined the
+enemy merchantmen within their own ports, and the North Sea was
+practically clear of them.
+
+The destroyers of the Harwich Force, however, used to make successful
+raids on the enemy trawlers fishing in German waters, generally on the
+Jutland coast. It was the practice of our destroyers to spread out on
+nearing territorial waters, sweep in and drive the trawlers out, and
+then reassemble with their captures at an appointed spot. Prize crews
+were then placed on the trawlers, and they were sent to England. In
+one raid in 1915 over twenty were thus captured. Those that contrived
+to escape under the shore among shallows, where the destroyers could
+not follow, were sunk by our gun-fire.
+
+Throughout the war the activities of the Harwich Force were unceasing,
+and took a variety of forms. A detachment would go out with the object
+of enticing the enemy over our submarines, which were lying below the
+surface awaiting them. There were patrols that were watching to
+intercept the Zeppelins and other aircraft that were crossing the
+North Sea to bomb our undefended cities. Sections of the force were
+lent to Dover to patrol off Ostend and Zeebrugge. It was while she was
+engaged on this latter duty that the _Cleopatra_ was mined, but
+happily not lost. There were continuous patrols along the Dutch coast
+and the Frisian Islands to watch for and intercept the German naval
+forces that were attempting to make the Belgian ports. On many a
+stormy winter's night the destroyers would rush out in the teeth of
+the icy spray to attack a foe or assist a friend in difficulty. It was
+perpetual vigilance, peril, and sometimes toil almost beyond the
+endurance of human flesh. Thus, on one occasion two light cruisers had
+no sooner returned with their weary crews from a harassing three days'
+patrol, than they were ordered out again to cross the North Sea and
+reconnoitre the German High Sea Fleet, which, it was known, was coming
+out to manoeuvre off Heligoland. Thus people in England were enabled
+to sleep in their beds in confidence; for the unceasing patrols saw
+to it that no serious attack could be made on our coasts without ample
+warning being given.
+
+At the beginning of the war--as all the world now knows--the number of
+our destroyers in the North Sea was wholly insufficient, the enemy
+being there far stronger than we were in these indispensable craft.
+Consequently it became incumbent upon the destroyers of the Harwich
+Force to perform duties which would have provided ample work for twice
+their number. After the war had started, of course, the construction
+of destroyers was carried on at a feverish speed in our shipyards, and
+now there is no lack of them.
+
+But the activities of the Harwich destroyers were extended far beyond
+the limits of the North Sea. At the beginning of the war, for
+example, a division of destroyers from Harwich had Newport in Wales
+for its base, and was constantly employed in patrolling, screening big
+ships at sea, fighting submarines, convoying in the Atlantic, and so
+forth.
+
+I will give a few details to show the sort of work that was done by
+the Harwich Force at the eastern approaches to the Channel. Through
+the winter of 1916-1917 there was always a division of the Harwich
+Force patrolling the Channel barrage in conjunction with the Dover
+Patrol. It was a one-month patrol. There was no leave, no short
+notice, and the ships only returned to Harwich for boiler-cleaning.
+
+One important duty of the Harwich Force was to patrol the mine-net
+barrage which extended along the Belgian coast, parallel to and at
+about ten miles distance from the shore, from Dunkirk to Holland.
+There was nearly always one division of the Harwich Force, consisting
+of four destroyers, with one or two monitors, patrolling just outside
+the barrage by day, within effective range of the German guns on the
+shore (their range was 30,000 yards). By night the division used to
+patrol and protect the Downs. This patrol, based on Dover, used to
+carry on this work for three weeks at a stretch, always at sea, or
+ready to get off at a moment's notice. Its function outside the
+mine-net barrage was to prevent enemy submarines from passing through
+the barrage, and to stop the enemy destroyers from leaving their base.
+This channel patrolled by our destroyers was bordered on its south
+side by the mine-net barrage and on its north side by our minefields.
+On the further side of the minefields our light cruisers and
+destroyers patrolled in support.
+
+Our destroyers had frequent scraps with the enemy across the narrow
+mine-net barrage. It was while engaged in this work that the Harwich
+Patrol co-operated with the Dover Patrol in the bombardment of the
+coast. On one occasion, at daylight, the Harwich Force sighted four
+German destroyers making for Zeebrugge. The _Centaur_, at that time
+Admiral Tyrwhitt's flagship, with other cruisers and destroyers of the
+Harwich Force, sank one of the enemy destroyers, the S20, and badly
+damaged other destroyers.
+
+In the course of the execution of this duty of ever keeping a watchful
+eye on the enemy, the Harwich Force had its full share of fighting.
+Thus, on January 22, 1917, a calm, cold, very dark night, three of the
+light cruisers were on the lookout to intercept German destroyers that
+were known to be making for Zeebrugge. As they were steering in a
+south-westerly direction eight enemy destroyers were sighted passing
+close under their stern. A general melee followed at short range, 1000
+yards and less, the cruisers blazing away with their guns, the
+destroyers replying with their torpedoes. One who took part in the
+action says that the atmospheric conditions helped to make the scene
+an extraordinary one. The enemy destroyers, as they rapidly turned
+hither and thither in their manoeuvring across the limited space which
+the action occupied, had their funnels crowned with a vivid red glow,
+and the smoke from them hung like a scarlet canopy over the engaging
+ships. The enemy ships must have been badly knocked about, for they
+soon retired, enveloped in a dense cloud of smoke. One was sunk in
+full view of our ships, and one at least was so damaged that she sank
+later. About an hour afterwards British destroyers fought a short
+action with the same enemy destroyers. Soon another of the enemy was
+seen to be hurrying to the Dutch coast, apparently in a sinking
+condition. During this action, so close was the fighting that one
+British destroyer and a German T.B.D. were engaged within pistol range
+of each other. The German escaped in the darkness, and had to put into
+Ymuiden in a terribly damaged condition. In this fight one of our
+destroyers, the _Simoon_, was blown up by an enemy shell which
+exploded in her fore magazine.
+
+It would take long to tell the whole heroic story of the Harwich Force
+during the great war. At Harwich, the people, who are in close touch
+with the Navy, and must know many things over which, hitherto, "Dora"
+has drawn her discreet veil, speak in terms of the profoundest
+admiration, pride, and respect of the officers and men of the light
+force which played its part so gallantly in defending the
+inviolability of England. Commodore Tyrwhitt--since 1917 Rear-Admiral
+Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt--was the right man to lead such men. And how
+wonderful have been his experiences throughout this long war! He has
+fought in many actions; in his successive flagships he has been
+torpedoed and mined--his first flagship, as we have seen, sank under
+him; he was ever cruising about enemy waters; he was ever finding
+himself in tight corners; and he always contrived to extricate his
+squadron from the most difficult situations.
+
+
+
+
+_Part II_
+
+THE HARWICH SUBMARINE FLOTILLA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+COMPOSITION OF THE FLOTILLA
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+COMPOSITION OF THE FLOTILLA
+
+    The shore establishment--Heavy losses of the
+      flotilla--Humorous incidents--Drowning the
+      mascot--Bluffing the Huns.
+
+
+The Submarine Flotilla at Harwich, acting as a separate unit and
+receiving its orders directly from the Admiralty, though also at times
+working in co-operation with the Harwich Force of light cruisers and
+destroyers, played a very useful part in the naval war, and was
+especially instrumental in making the North Sea too uncomfortable for
+German submarines. At the commencement of the war the _Maidstone_ was
+the only depot ship of the flotilla, but later she was joined by two
+others, the _Pandora_ and the _Forth_, while another ship, the
+_Alecto_, was stationed as a branch depot ship at Yarmouth, that port
+being somewhat nearer the usual objective of our submarines than
+Harwich.
+
+At the opening of the war, Commodore Roger Keyes was in command of the
+flotilla. Then Captain Waistell was in command until the end of the
+third year of the war. He was succeeded by Captain A.P. Addison, who
+is still in command. The average strength of the flotilla was eighteen
+submarines, the large majority of them being of the very useful "E"
+type. This was the only organised flotilla existing in England at the
+opening of the war. It had the advantage, therefore, of taking to
+itself all the senior and most experienced submarine officers in the
+Navy, a fact that may account for the large percentage of hits made
+by the torpedoes of these submarines in the course of the war--a
+percentage of which officers and men naturally feel proud. At first
+the personnel of the flotilla comprised naval men only; but, later,
+numbers of men from the merchant service and artificers from shore
+works were absorbed into it. These latter became very keen and
+efficient, and are spoken of in terms of high praise by the officers.
+
+It was the practice, when the submarines returned after one or other
+of their adventurous voyages, at once to remove the crews from their
+confined quarters to the depot ships, in which they lived until the
+time came to put to sea again. But as the war progressed the
+accommodation afforded by the depot ships became inadequate.
+Consequently the _Maidstone_ and other depot ships which had been
+moored in the harbour were brought alongside Parkeston quay; while,
+facing the quay, on the ground that had been taken over from the Great
+Eastern Railway Company (a company, by the way, which co-operated with
+the Admiralty in a zealous and patriotic fashion), there rapidly rose
+an extensive shore establishment, with store-rooms, workshops,
+offices, and comfortable quarters for the submarine crews, who lived
+here instead of in the depot ships when their craft were in port.
+
+The arrangements made for the comfort of the men were excellent. A
+church, a chapel, recreation rooms, a theatre, a cinema house, and
+canteens fronted the quay, and good companies were brought from
+London theatres and music-halls to entertain the sailors, while, of
+course, provision was also made for outdoor sports and games. There
+were, naturally, serious-minded people who considered that some of
+these arrangements were of a frivolous character, out of harmony with
+the tragedy of war. But those who organised these things knew better.
+The strain of submarine work is very great. To occupy the minds of the
+men with amusements while they are resting awhile on shore after their
+trying duties cannot but help to keep up their _moral_. And that the
+_moral_ of the submarine men was wonderful all are agreed. Surely no
+other Service on land or sea can supply a greater test of sustained
+valour than does this submarine warfare. The conditions of it are
+uncanny, calculated to terrify the imagination. As a rule the
+submarine is playing a lone hand upon the seas. It is rare, when
+disaster comes, for a friendly ship to be near her to bring help or to
+carry tidings of her to England. In the great majority of cases, when
+one of our submarines has been lost, all that is known of the disaster
+is that she does not come home. What has happened to her remains a
+secret of the sea never to be revealed. An ordinary patrol for a
+submarine of the Harwich Flotilla was of about ten days; a mine-laying
+trip, of from three to six days' duration. When the overdue ship did
+not return there was suspense for several days, until at last it was
+realised that there was no longer room for hope.
+
+In this little flotilla of eighteen submarines, ships that disappeared
+had to be replaced by others. For in the course of the war twenty "E"
+boats, two "D" boats, and one "L" boat belonging to the flotilla were
+lost, and these figures do not include the submarines that were
+detached from the Harwich Flotilla to be lost in the Mediterranean and
+Baltic. The sailor of to-day has not all the superstitions of his
+forefathers, but, like most people, he has some belief in omens.
+Certain coincidences made him regard it as very unlucky to sail in a
+submarine when a new captain was making his first voyage in her.
+Within a short period four submarines that had sailed out of Harwich
+under new captains were never heard of again. It was also recognised
+that ill luck was likely to attend the first voyage of a newly
+launched submarine; but that, so soon as the first voyage had been
+safely accomplished, all was well with the ship, which would then be
+faced only by the ordinary chances of war.
+
+To turn to an amusing example of the superstition of the sea. In the
+course of one cruise a submarine of the Harwich Flotilla had fired
+seven torpedoes at various enemy ships without result. The captain
+discovered one of his crew kneeling on the deck over a bucket of
+sea-water. He was holding under the water and mercilessly wringing an
+object against which he was directing a volume of abuse in terms
+frankly nautical. Disgusted at the failure of the torpedoes, he was
+drowning the ship's mascot, a teddy bear or similar doll, hoping to
+change the luck. I wish that I could state that the next torpedo fired
+sank a Hun battleship, but I have no record of the sequel.
+
+Even in war there are humorous incidents, and, indeed, there are many
+of them. One submarine captain of this flotilla attacked a German
+submarine on the surface and gave chase to her with the intention of
+torpedoing her. But the Hun had the greater speed; the British
+submarine had no gun, and could not get near enough to the receding
+foe to use a torpedo. So the captain had to content himself with
+signalling insulting messages to the Hun, hoping to taunt him into
+fighting; but the shocked Hun dived under the surface and disappeared
+in order to avoid the language.
+
+On another occasion a submarine of this flotilla and a German
+submarine passed very close to each other in such foul weather that
+nothing could be done in the way of fighting, so the two captains
+waved their hands cheerily at each other and went their respective
+ways. This is the only instance that I can recall of any Hun having
+displayed anything remotely resembling a sense of humour in the course
+of this war.
+
+Our submarine commanders appear to have been adepts in the art of
+successfully bluffing the enemy when the occasion arose. For example,
+after one of our air raids on the German coast, a submarine of the
+Harwich Flotilla went to the rescue of one of our seaplanes that had
+fallen disabled to the water. While she was engaged in sinking the
+seaplane and taking off her pilot, a German aircraft came over very
+close. The captain of the submarine waved his cap to the enemy airmen,
+who concluded that the submarine was a German boat which had brought
+down an English seaplane and was capturing her pilot. As soon as the
+captain of the submarine had completed his task he dived quickly. The
+German must have then realised too late that he was dealing with an
+enemy, for as the submarine was moving away beneath the surface there
+was felt the shock caused by the bursting of bombs dropped by the Hun
+aircraft.
+
+On another occasion, in June 1915, one of the Harwich submarines, on
+coming to the surface somewhere near the German coast, found that her
+engines were partly disabled. There was a German trawler in sight, and
+within range of the submarine's gun. The trawler would certainly have
+made a bolt for it, and in all probability would have got safely away,
+had she known that the submarine was incapable of giving chase to her.
+But the captain of the submarine induced the German to surrender and
+compelled him to tow the crippled submarine across the North Sea back
+to Harwich, where the trawler and her crew of eight men were handed
+over to the authorities.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RECONNAISSANCE AND MINE-LAYING
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+RECONNAISSANCE AND MINE-LAYING
+
+    The eyes of the Fleet--The _Westphalen_
+      torpedoed--Mine-laying submarines--Destruction of U boats.
+
+
+The principal duties of our submarines in the North Sea were
+reconnaissance, attack on the enemy's ships, especially on his
+submarines, and mine-laying. The Germans were the first to introduce
+the system of laying mines with submarines, but we quickly followed
+their example and constructed submarines for this purpose. One of our
+submarines carries about twenty mines. The weapon of our submarines
+is, of course, the torpedo, of which an "E" boat carries ten. Our
+submarines, unlike the German, usually carry nothing heavier than the
+twelve-pound gun. But towards the end of the war we were constructing
+submarines with heavier armament. Our latest "M" boat is armed with a
+twelve-inch gun; she was despatched to the Mediterranean, but the
+armistice was signed, and prevented her from showing what she could do
+in the war.
+
+For reconnaissance work in the North Sea our submarines were
+invaluable, for they could patrol close under the enemy shores, seeing
+much without being seen themselves, and could do what surface ships
+could not do--remain there on the watch for several days at a time if
+necessary, for they were able to dive and disappear if detected and in
+serious danger. The submarines of the Harwich Flotilla had often to
+travel under our own and the enemy minefields. They were ever
+patrolling our own great minefields on the east side of the North Sea,
+and sending home wireless information as to the movements of the enemy
+light forces, and reporting any mine-sweeping operations on the part
+of the enemy that seemed to indicate preparations for a sortie. It was
+the ambition of every British submarine captain, by giving timely
+notice, to bring about what the Huns used to term "The Day," that is,
+an action between their somewhat over-shy capital ships and our own.
+
+It was regarded as being of so great importance to obtain the earliest
+possible warning of Hun activities in the North Sea that an order was
+issued by the Admiralty to the effect that a submarine on lookout
+patrol had for her primary duty to come to the surface and send home, by
+wireless, information as to _outward_-bound enemy surface craft; while
+her secondary duty was to attack. In the case of _homeward_-bound enemy
+surface craft, the primary duty was to attack. If there should be any
+doubt as to the destination of an enemy surface craft, it was the duty
+of the submarine first to report by wireless and then to attack.
+
+I have already shown how, during the critical eight days that saw our
+First Expeditionary Force cross the Channel to France, the Harwich
+submarines kept a sleepless watch on the German coast, to attack the
+enemy ships should they come out to interfere with the transport of
+our troops. I have also explained that these submarines had a good
+deal to do with the preparation for the action in Heligoland Bight.
+
+It was the E23, too, of this flotilla that, while patrolling, sighted
+the German High Sea Fleet on August 19, 1916. She first wirelessed
+home the news that the Germans had come out, and then delivered a bold
+attack. She torpedoed the battleship _Westphalen_ on the port side.
+The result of the explosion gave the battleship a big list, but for a
+while she still went on with the battle fleet. As the list increased,
+she at last left the line and turned for home, escorted by destroyers.
+Thereupon the E23 set out to intercept her, passed through the screen
+of enemy destroyers that were zigzagging round the _Westphalen_, and
+torpedoed her on the starboard side. The battleship contrived to get
+away, but in so damaged a condition that she must have been out of the
+war for a considerable time.
+
+The strategical position occupied by the Harwich Flotilla also imposed
+upon it another duty of great responsibility. The submarines had to be
+ever ready to go south at a moment's notice to cover the eastern
+approach to the English Channel against the enemy capital ships,
+should these attempt to break through. Had the Germans made the
+attempt in earnest, there is no doubt that they would have had to pay
+a very heavy toll.
+
+Admiral Sir David Beatty put it well when, in a speech delivered in
+Edinburgh, he spoke of our "submarine sentinels who carried out the
+same services as the storm-tossed frigates of Cornwallis off Brest."
+
+The only British submarines that were adapted for the laying of mines
+were those of the Harwich Flotilla. Consequently, for a considerable
+time plenty of arduous, perilous work among the minefields fell to
+their lot.
+
+The mine-laying submarines of the Harwich Flotilla were especially
+busy on the eastern side of the North Sea, where our great minefields
+were. Captains of submarines describe this portion of the sea as an
+ideal one for submarine work; for the depth of the water is generally
+of from twenty to thirty fathoms, at which depth a submarine can lie
+comfortably at the bottom without being subjected to an excessive
+pressure. Comfortable is, of course, a relative term. Most people
+would never be anything but extremely uncomfortable in the atmosphere
+of a submarine after she has been submerged for some hours. A
+fresh-air crank would die in it.
+
+The great minefield which was declared by our Government in the summer
+of 1917, the preparation of which was a gigantic undertaking, extended
+from the Frisian Islands to about latitude 56 degrees north. The
+Dutch, for their own purposes, removed their lightships from their
+coasts to the western side of this minefield, thus forming a line of
+lights running north and south, roughly along the 4th degree of east
+longitude. This our sailors facetiously named Piccadilly Circus. It
+was the business of the submarines to lay mines on the eastern part of
+this minefield, that is, near to the coast. Our surface mine-layers
+laid their mines further seaward; while still further west our large
+mine-laying ships, one of which can carry as many as three hundred
+mines, laid their mines just inside Piccadilly Circus. Our submarines
+used to patrol regularly along Piccadilly Circus to look out for and
+attack enemy ships, and at intervals went shorewards through the
+minefield in order to reconnoitre.
+
+A mine-laying submarine used to adopt the following methods. She would
+get close under the enemy coast under cover of the night and then
+dive, to remain at the bottom until the morning. As soon as there was
+light enough she would rise until her periscope was above the surface,
+and ascertain her position by cross bearings of the shore taken
+through her periscope. Then she would move to the different positions
+at which she had to lay her mines, all the while using her periscope
+for the taking of cross bearings. When she had completed her work she
+would return home by night, travelling on the surface as before.
+
+The patrolling submarines were bombed constantly by enemy Zeppelins
+and seaplanes, but with little effect. To the submarine the mine was
+by far the greatest danger, and no doubt the depth charge too
+accounted for some of our casualties. But, as I have said, in nearly
+all cases when a submarine is lost, no one knows what has happened.
+She merely does not come back. The mine-laying of the Harwich
+submarines was chiefly directed against the enemy submarines, the
+mines being generally laid at about eight feet below the surface, so
+as to catch these craft while travelling on the surface. They were
+also laid at forty feet or more, so as to strike the submarines when
+travelling under water.
+
+The Harwich Flotilla certainly did its full share of the work that
+made the North Sea too dangerous for the enemy pirates. Latterly the
+German submarines, in their anxiety to reach waters where they could
+carry out their operations in conditions of less danger, endeavoured
+to escape from the North Sea as quickly as possible, travelling on the
+surface. Many of these fell victims to our mines, and, if they dived,
+to our depth charges. During the first months of 1918 the British Navy
+definitely got the better of the submarine enemy, and so many German
+submarines did not return to their base that panic seized the sailors
+who manned the "U" boats. We hear strange tales now of submarine crews
+that refused to join their ships, and of press-gangs that were sent
+to sweep up what men they could find in the brothels and taverns of a
+German seaport before the ship could put to sea.
+
+One of the duties of the submarines of the Harwich Flotilla was to
+watch for and attack the enemy submarines as they attempted to escape
+from the North Sea by one or other of the two swept channels used by
+them for this purpose, one channel being carried from Heligoland in a
+northwesterly direction, the other one running close under the Frisian
+Islands. Ingenious traps were laid for the enemy; they were allowed no
+respite. It was in vain that they frequently changed the direction of
+their channels. No sooner had they prepared a new channel across the
+minefields than our alert submarines discovered it and blocked it with
+mines.
+
+Some figures given by Sir Eric Geddes the other day show how effective
+was the work done by our submarine mine-layers. During the first six
+months of 1918 over a hundred German boats were caught by the mines
+laid by our submarines off the German North Sea coast, and in one
+month alone the mine barrier across the Channel below Ostend trapped
+seventeen German submarines. On the other hand, the Germans also were
+very vigilant. Their Zeppelin patrols, especially during last summer,
+were efficient, and were successful in discovering the position of the
+channels which we had swept across the German minefields.
+
+There can be no doubt that the Zeppelins were of considerable service
+to the Germans in the North Sea; not that they did much damage with
+the bombs that they dropped--indeed, I have heard of one instance
+only of a bomb falling on a ship of the Harwich Force--but for a time
+our patrols were persistently followed by these scouting aircraft,
+flying overhead out of range of our guns, signalling our movements to
+the Huns. To our submarines working on the further side of the North
+Sea they were also a source of trouble, for over there the sea is much
+clearer than on our side, and a submarine below the surface is, as a
+rule, easily to be distinguished by a Zeppelin hovering above it.
+Before the end of the war, however, the activities of the Zeppelins
+were much reduced by the action of our own aircraft.
+
+The fact remains that, in the long struggle between the German and
+British submarines in the North Sea, the work done by the latter was
+the most efficient and destructive, and broke the nerve of the enemy
+submarine crews, whereas the _moral_ of our men remained unshaken to
+the end. The men of the soulless German Navy were brave enough at
+first, with the bravery inspired by an ineffable conceit and
+arrogance. They had been taught that the German Navy was in every
+respect superior to the British--in ships, guns, personnel, and
+skilful leadership. It had been impressed upon their submarine crews
+that within a few months the unrestricted piracy of the German
+submarine would bring England to her knees. Undeceived at last, they
+lost heart, and the submarine crews were the first to set the example
+of mutiny to the German Navy, the first to refuse to face the enemy
+that they had been taught to despise.
+
+Later, the crews of the High Sea Fleet followed the example set by
+the submarines. When at last, after long waiting, that fleet was
+ordered to put to sea and make a fight of it, the ships' companies
+would not obey their officers, and the fleet had to remain in port.
+Our Navy had no spectacular victory; there was no knock-out blow; for
+the enemy had had enough of it and threw up the sponge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FINE SUBMARINE RECORDS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FINE SUBMARINE RECORDS
+
+    Some narrow escapes--Sinking a Zeppelin--The doings of the
+      E9--Sinking of the _Prince Adalbert_--The decoy trawler.
+
+
+That the patrolling and mine-laying on the enemy coast was work of a
+highly dangerous nature goes without saying. The first of our
+mine-laying submarines was launched in 1916 and joined the Harwich
+Flotilla. The new experiment was watched with great interest by naval
+men, but the history of that ship seemed of evil augury for the future
+of these craft. On her first voyage something went wrong, and she
+returned to port three days overdue, having caused much anxiety as to
+her fate. From her second trip she never returned.
+
+While it is seldom that anything is known of the fate of our lost
+submarines, numerous are the records of the narrow escapes from
+destruction. It was not at all unusual, for example, when diving off
+the German coast, for a submarine to find herself in difficulties
+among the shoals. Thus one of the Harwich submarines, when diving
+close to the mouth of the Ems river, struck a sandbank with her stem,
+and slid up it until her conning-tower was well out of the water. Here
+she stuck firmly. At this critical moment two German destroyers were
+seen to come out of the Ems and approach her. Efforts were made in
+vain to wriggle her off the bank, and it looked much as if she would
+be numbered among our submarines that did not come back. But, as luck
+would have it, the Germans passed by without perceiving her.
+Ultimately, assisted by a rising tide, the submarine was got off the
+bank stern first, bumped along the bottom to the safety of deeper
+water, and lived to tell the tale and fight another day.
+
+On Christmas Day, 1914, one of our small submarines, the S1, forming
+part of the submarine force that was acting in conjunction with the
+Harwich Force during the Cuxhaven air raid, found herself in a
+perilous position. While diving to the bottom early that morning she
+struck an obstacle and knocked off her forward drop-keel. Relieved of
+this heavy weight, she shot to the surface. The order was given to
+fill her empty tanks with sea-water; but this failed to destroy her
+buoyancy, and it was found impossible to bring her below the surface.
+To remain with a submarine that refused to sink, so near to the enemy
+shore, was to invite disaster; so the only thing possible was done.
+The S1 recrossed the North Sea as fast as she was able, and
+fortunately reached Harwich without encountering the enemy.
+
+On one occasion E31 came across a disabled Zeppelin--which earlier in
+the day had been winged by light cruisers of the Harwich
+Force--sitting on the water. The Zeppelin showed fight; she was sunk
+by the submarine's gunfire, and the survivors, seven in number, were
+taken off as prisoners. During the night, on the homeward voyage, the
+submarine was overtaken by a German light cruiser, which opened fire
+on her. "Ach, zey com!" triumphantly exclaimed one of the prisoners,
+a sulky German officer, who up till then had not uttered a word. The
+order had been given to dive, but for some reason this could not be
+effected quickly. Delay was dangerous, so the officer of the watch put
+the submarine's helm hard over, and she went round in circles,
+presenting a difficult target. The German cruiser now proceeded to
+steam round in still larger circles. For a while she was so close to
+the submarine that she could not get her guns to bear on her. Then she
+attempted to ram her, but in vain. Eventually the E31 dived, and, just
+before her stern went under, she was struck in the after casing by a
+six-inch shell. When she had sunk she released some oil, and the
+Germans, seeing this, reported her as lost. But she was not much
+damaged, and got home. This throwing out of oil from a diving
+submarine was a ruse employed by both sides, and soon the appearance
+of a volume of oil upon the surface of the sea was no longer accepted
+as proof of a successful hit. But at any rate it left the other side
+in doubt as to what had happened.
+
+Several submarines of the Harwich Flotilla have fine records to show.
+Take the E9, for example. She was the first of the flotilla to send an
+enemy ship to the bottom. Within a few weeks of the declaration of war
+she was lying off Heligoland, at times within three miles of it, on
+the watch for enemy ships to come out. She was rewarded by seeing the
+German light cruiser _Hela_ steaming out of the harbour. She torpedoed
+and sank her. Next we hear of the E9 awaiting her prey at the mouth of
+the Ems river. Her main object at the time was to report any sortie
+of the German heavier ships to our own cruisers, which were then at
+sea. Here she caught a German destroyer and torpedoed her. The
+destroyer broke in two, one half of her sinking to the bottom, while
+the forward half, being air-locked, sank to a certain depth only, and
+there remained with the bow sticking up above the surface. Later in
+the war the E9 was detached from the Harwich Flotilla for service in
+the Baltic, and there her exploits were numerous. She sailed under
+sealed orders, and her instructions were to get into the Baltic as
+soon as possible. So she did not waste time by stopping to fight on
+her way. Thus, when passing through the Sound on a very dark night,
+she was nearly run down by a German destroyer. After the two ships
+had passed each other the submarine dived, so as to avoid the enemy's
+attentions. But the water was shallow and her periscope was still
+above the surface when she touched bottom. However, she escaped after
+bumping along the sea-floor for four hours before she found herself in
+deeper water. In the Baltic she sank two destroyers and torpedoed and
+badly damaged a third. She sank two German transports while they were
+being escorted by cruisers. Next she torpedoed a large ship, which
+looked like a battleship of the _Deutschland_ class, coming out of
+Danzig. She was probably supporting the fleet that was then attacking
+the Russians. The ship apparently was severely damaged by the torpedo,
+and volumes of smoke were seen to be pouring from her. E9 also sank
+four German merchantmen which were running iron ore from Sweden to
+Germany. The submarine boarded them, put charges in them, and blew
+them up. I need not say that no German lives were lost on this
+occasion, for the submarine was flying the British flag. Ultimately,
+when the Russian revolution broke out, the E9, with other ships, were
+blown up by us in the Gulf of Finland, to prevent them from falling
+into the hands of the enemy.
+
+E16, of the Harwich Force, also had a fine record. Among other
+exploits, she sank a destroyer, she sank a German submarine, she sank
+an auxiliary cruiser; and finally she herself was numbered among those
+that did not come back. The submarines that were engaged in
+mine-laying also had an occasional successful fight with enemy ships.
+Thus E34, while returning from a mine-laying expedition, made a clever
+attack on an enemy submarine. The two ships were on the surface,
+coming towards each other. The British submarine was the first to
+sight the other. She dived and fired a torpedo, which struck the
+German in the conning-tower. A violent explosion followed, and
+afterwards there was nothing to be seen on the water save two objects,
+one of which proved to be the German captain, who was saved, and the
+other to be one of the crew, who sank.
+
+It is the practice of the submarine to deliver its attack when below
+the surface. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, as when the
+attack is made on a dark night, when it would be impossible to
+distinguish one's target through a periscope. Thus E52, of the
+Harwich Flotilla, in November 1917, while co-operating with the Dover
+Patrol, sighted an enemy submarine at about one o'clock in the
+morning; she attacked the enemy on the surface, and fired two
+torpedoes, both of which struck. The German sank, and only one
+survivor was picked up.
+
+And now and again it was bigger game that was brought down, as when
+E8, of the Harwich Flotilla, at the time detached for service in the
+Baltic, struck the German heavy cruiser _Prince Adalbert_ with a
+torpedo at eight hundred yards range. The torpedo must have caused an
+explosion in the German's magazine, for she was blown to pieces, and
+the submarine had to dive to prevent the falling fragments from
+injuring her.
+
+Ingenious methods were employed by our submarines to entrap the
+enemy's ships, and especially their submarines. The following plan,
+for example, was successfully carried out by the Harwich submarines
+until the Germans by chance discovered the trick and thenceforth
+became more wary. The enticing of the Hun to his destruction was
+effected in this manner. A disreputable old fishing vessel was sent
+out to potter about the North Sea as if trawling for fish, thus
+inviting the attack of the enemy. But the rope that was trailing
+ostentatiously over her side was attached to no innocent trawl-beam,
+but to one of our submarines, which she used to tow astern of her at a
+depth of about sixty feet below the surface of the sea. The trawler
+was commanded by a naval officer, and had a crew composed partly of
+bluejackets and partly of trawler sailors. These trawler fishermen,
+by the way, eager to avenge their murdered brethren, were at first too
+zealous, and had to be prevented from uncovering the concealed gun
+which the trawler carried, so soon as an enemy was sighted, thus
+giving away the game. The trawler used thus to wander about the sea
+towing a submarine for about a fortnight at a spell; but the submarine
+was relieved by another submarine, always under cover of the night,
+every three or four days. The trawler, when she left port and when she
+returned to it, went alone, the submarine joining her or leaving her
+outside in the night. There was thus little chance of the Hun
+receiving information of what was doing.
+
+Whenever an enemy ship, attracted by the bait thus displayed for her
+benefit, made for the apparently defenceless trawler with the object
+of sinking her, the trawler, by means of the telephone wire which
+connected her with the submerged submarine, communicated to the latter
+the movements of the enemy. The submarine--which was enabled by a
+device to slip the tow-line from within--when the right moment arrived
+delivered her attack, and a torpedo, possibly backed up by a round or
+two from the trawler's now disclosed gun, finished the enemy off.
+
+I have before me quite a long list--and it is not a complete one--of
+the enemy ships that were sunk in action by the Harwich Submarine
+Flotilla, including cruisers, torpedo-boats, armed merchantmen, and
+submarines, the latter being the most numerous. It is satisfactory to
+know that, heavy though were the losses of the flotilla, the losses
+that they inflicted on the enemy (in action alone, exclusive of the
+terrible effect of the mines which they laid) were considerably
+heavier. But the glory of the little flotilla lies not so much in the
+material losses which it caused to the enemy as in the four years'
+sleepless watch which it kept in the North Sea, in conjunction with
+the other units of our Fleet--the watch that closed the oceans to
+Germany while holding them open to ourselves and our Allies, the watch
+that kept the great German Navy lying paralysed in its harbours, until
+the day came when the battleships that had not fired a shot crawled
+across the North Sea to surrender themselves ignominiously to our
+Admirals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+GERMAN CRIMES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+GERMAN CRIMES
+
+    Loss of the E13--Inhuman Hun methods--Stranding of the U.C.
+      5--German traps--Risky salvage work.
+
+
+I will conclude this section of the book with two stories of
+submarines which will serve well to contrast Hun methods of sea
+warfare with our own. The first story shows how those who manned the
+German warships (one cannot employ the term "sailors" when speaking of
+Germans) treated a British crew when it was at their mercy and could
+not defend itself. The second story shows how our sailors acted in
+similar circumstances.
+
+In the summer of 1915 the submarine E13 was detached from the Harwich
+Flotilla and sailed to the Baltic. She went aground off Saltholm, an
+island in the Sound, near Copenhagen. A German destroyer came up and
+opened fire on her while she thus lay helpless. The captain of the
+submarine gave the order that she should be abandoned. This was done.
+The Huns then opened a heavy fire with shrapnel and machine-guns on
+the British sailors in the water, killing many of them. Shortly none
+would have been left alive, and the E13 would have been added to the
+list of the submarines that did not come back, their fate unknown, had
+it not been for the providential appearance on the scene of a ship
+belonging to a nation of real sailors, who have known the chivalry of
+the sea from the earliest days. A Danish gunboat came up and placed
+herself between the submarine and the German destroyer, thus
+compelling the latter to cease firing. The Danes picked up the
+survivors, who amounted to about one-half of the crew.
+
+In a letter that appeared in the _Morning Post_, a correspondent gives
+some further particulars of this incident:--"The Danish gunboat
+compelled the Huns to cease firing on the defenceless crew of this
+submarine, stranded in Danish territorial waters. Wanton murder was
+added to the grave infringement of Danish territorial rights. Both the
+Danish sailors and the gunners on the naval fort overlooking the scene
+were burning with indignation, and were joyfully awaiting the order to
+open fire on the German vessel, if the latter had not immediately
+obeyed the Danish signal to stop these inhuman and illegal
+proceedings. And the people of Copenhagen found it extremely difficult
+to suppress their natural anger when the funeral of the victims took
+place amidst scenes of heartfelt sympathy."
+
+And now for the other story. One day in March 1915, while a section of
+the Harwich Submarine Flotilla was outside the harbour, engaged in the
+work of training men in the use of the torpedo, the _Firedrake_, one
+of the three tender destroyers to the flotilla, sighted an object on
+the Shipwash, a long, narrow shoal that lies about ten miles east of
+Harwich. The captain of the _Firedrake_, wishing to satisfy himself as
+to the nature of this object, steamed nearer to it and discovered that
+it was the conning-tower of a submarine, obviously of a German
+submarine, as none of our own submarines was in the vicinity. The
+German was aground on the shoal and at the mercy of the British. As
+the _Firedrake_ approached her, the German crew were seen to be
+standing on her upper deck, which was awash, and holding up their
+hands. When the destroyer got still nearer, the Germans jumped into
+the water and were soon picked up by the destroyer's boats, which had
+been lowered for the purpose. It was thought that all the men had been
+brought on board the _Firedrake_, when a man was observed to hurry up
+to the submarine's deck from below. He shouted and waved his hands
+frantically, and then jumped overboard. He was picked up and brought
+off, but volunteered no information as to what he had been doing
+before he had left his ship. This was soon made clear, however, for
+several explosions now followed each other on the stranded submarine,
+and bits of bedding and other articles and volumes of brown smoke were
+seen to be pouring out of her conning-tower.
+
+It was a dirty trick to play after a surrender. Had the explosions
+occurred a few minutes later, we should probably have lost some of our
+own men, as boats were about to put off to the submarine with a
+boarding party. If the case had been reversed, and the crew of a
+British stranded ship had done this thing, the Germans would
+undoubtedly have shot them, had there been any left to shoot; for
+probably shell and machine-gun fire would have been playing upon our
+men both before they had abandoned the ship and afterwards while they
+were in the water--as witness the E13. The German prisoners taken from
+the submarine, however, were treated by the British in a humane
+fashion.
+
+And yet, as it turned out, the treacherous Hun had yet another and
+more dangerous trap arranged for us. Time having been allowed for any
+possible further explosions on the enemy boat, Torpedo-Lieutenant
+Paterson and two other officers went off to her, in order to ascertain
+her condition. They found that the examination could be more easily
+carried out at low water. So two hours later, when the tide had
+fallen, they again visited the ship. She proved to be a submarine
+mine-layer, the U.C. 5, full of mines. She had been badly holed by the
+explosions, and the water was surging about inside of her. The
+Admiralty were very anxious to salvage her, for she was the first
+German submarine that had fallen into our hands, and she would afford
+us the opportunity of learning whatever secrets a German "U" boat
+might contain. But it was obvious that it would be impossible to tow
+her into harbour without proper salvage plant. As it turned out, the
+salving of her proved a long job, occupying twenty-seven days of
+anxious and arduous work. A salvage officer and divers were got from
+the port to do the preliminary work and get all ready before the
+arrival on the scene of Commodore Young, R.N.R., and the heavy salvage
+plant. The mines in the submarine, of course, presented a serious
+danger, and Lieutenant Paterson was told off as mine adviser to the
+salvage people. First, exercising due caution, he made a careful
+examination of the wreck, which resulted in the discovery of what
+appears to have been the other Hun trap. He found that two of the
+mines had been loosed and were projecting through the bottom of the
+mine-tubes. Had attempts been made to raise the submarine, the mines
+would have fallen out, and their explosion would probably have
+annihilated the submarine, the salvage ships, and those engaged in the
+salvage work.
+
+Lieutenant Paterson reported what he had discovered, and ordered all
+salvage operations to be suspended until these mines had been made
+safe. That this had been a deliberately planned trap on the part of
+the Hun is indicated by the following incident. Lieutenant Paterson
+was told that one of the prisoners taken from the U.C. 5, who was at
+that time confined in the _Pandora_ depot ship, had asked if he could
+see a British officer, as he had a statement to make. So Paterson
+went to see him. The man then said that he had been very well treated
+by his captors, and that in recognition of this he wished to warn the
+English against making any attempt to salve the submarine, as a trap
+had been laid to blow up those who should undertake this task.
+
+Lieutenant Paterson now proceeded to deal with the mines in the
+submarine; he had with him an expert and daring naval diver--the
+former was awarded a D.S.C. and the latter a Conspicuous Gallantry
+Medal and a gratuity, in recognition of their services on this
+occasion. It was highly risky work, calling for much dexterity and
+ingenuity. It was found that the two projecting mines could not be
+drawn back into the tubes, so they were secured where they were with
+wire in such a way that they could not fall out; though, of course,
+there still remained the possibility of their being exploded by the
+ship's bumping on the sand. The upper mines were then rendered
+innocuous by the removal of the acid tubes from the horns and other
+precautions, but it was impossible to do this with the lower mines, so
+they remained active.
+
+Then the salvage work commenced--a heavy business now, for the U.C. 5
+was daily sinking deeper into the quicksands of the Shipwash. The
+naval salvage plant at Harwich proved too light to move her. At last
+she was lashed to a lighter with 6-1/2-inch wire, which was passed round
+her in four parts. As the tide rose the lighter lifted the wreck a
+little way, and then the wires broke, and back the submarine fell to
+the sea-bottom, at imminent risk of exploding the two projecting
+mines. Finally, Commodore Young, R.N.R., the salvage expert under whom
+the Admiralty Salvage Department has been placed, succeeded, with his
+heavy salvage plant, in raising her. He employed 9-inch wire and a
+large lighter capable of lifting 500 tons. The wreck was secured to
+the lighter's side at low water. The lighter's near tanks were then
+emptied, and her outer tanks were filled with water, which thus acted
+as a counterweight. This time the U.C. 5 was raised and got off
+safely. She was towed into Harwich harbour and placed in the floating
+dock--a delicate operation, as the measurements were close, the dock
+being only just large enough to receive her, and the two live mines
+were still projecting from her. But happily no accident occurred. All
+the mines were removed. She was patched up and sent to the Thames,
+where, it will be remembered, she was exhibited to the public and
+aroused much interest.
+
+It was no small part in the naval war in the North Sea that was played
+by the light cruisers and destroyers of the Harwich Force and the
+Harwich Submarine Flotilla. Their province it was to haunt the enemy's
+coasts for four years in all seasons and weathers, and harass the Hun
+in his own waters. It is a story of daring strategy, ingenious
+devices, constant stubborn attack, and as stubborn defence. The facts
+speak for themselves.
+
+
+
+
+_Part III_
+
+THE HARWICH AUXILIARY PATROL AND MINE-SWEEPING FORCE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE ROYAL NAVAL TRAWLER RESERVE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE ROYAL NAVAL TRAWLER RESERVE
+
+    Mine-sweeping trawlers--Captains courageous--Scotch
+      drifters--The motor launches--Keeping open the swept
+      channels.
+
+
+Having in previous chapters dealt with some of the gallant doings in
+the war of the Harwich Force of light cruisers and destroyers and the
+Harwich Submarine Flotilla, I will now turn to a third force which had
+Harwich as its base--the Harwich Auxiliary Patrol and Mine-sweeping
+Force, whose most valuable and most dangerous work it was throughout
+the war to clear the sea routes of the enemy's mines over a large and
+very vulnerable portion of the North Sea, and, incidentally, to
+attack and destroy the enemy's mine-laying submarines whenever
+possible, thus keeping open and comparatively safe the channels used
+by the Harwich Force and those frequented by our merchant shipping.
+
+A few years before the war the Admiralty had the foresight to found
+what may now be regarded as the nucleus of the vast mine-sweeping
+organisation that has been developed since 1914. When war broke out
+this nucleus contained a personnel of about a thousand officers and
+men, belonging to the Royal Naval Trawler Reserve, who used to undergo
+a short training each year in mine-sweeping, as it was then known; for
+great indeed has been the progress made since in this by no means
+simple science. These men were quite apart from the active service
+ratings of Fleet Sweeping Flotillas. It was realised how utterly
+inadequate was so small a force for the gigantic task that lay before
+it, so the Admiralty at once took steps to place the R.N.T.R. on a war
+footing. Able officers were set to work to organise the undertaking,
+suitable vessels were acquired, crews were enrolled, and the force
+expanded rapidly until at last it included approximately 750 sweeping
+vessels, all manned from the Trawler Reserve, the total of which was
+38,000 at the conclusion of the armistice. The magnitude of the work
+carried out may be gathered from the fact that during hostilities
+about 2000 square miles of sea were swept daily for mines in our home
+waters alone, while nearly 10,000 enemy mines were swept up and
+destroyed.
+
+The Harwich Branch of this force--the one with which I am here
+dealing--from the outbreak of war has been commanded by two successive
+Commanders under the Rear-Admiral of the base. Both these Commanders
+have been promoted to captains for good service during the war, while
+one has received the D.S.O., and the other the D.S.O. and bar.
+
+This auxiliary unit during the war was composed of something under one
+hundred mine-sweeping trawlers, patrol trawlers, and mine-net
+drifters, with a complement of about fifteen hundred men. In the year
+1916 it became apparent that the mine-sweeping force was not strong
+enough to cope with the large number of enemy mines laid in the area.
+Consequently the patrol trawlers were converted into mine-sweeping
+trawlers.
+
+The vessels employed in mine-sweeping on our coasts are of various
+types. I will not touch on the Fleet Sweepers, the twin-screw ships,
+the gunboats, and other craft, attached to the Fleet, whose duty it is
+to search the approaches to the Fleet bases in advance of the Fleet,
+but will confine myself to a description of the work performed by the
+hired paddle steamers, trawlers, drifters, and motor launches that
+constitute the auxiliary force at the Harwich base.
+
+First to speak of those sturdy little craft, the steam trawlers--as
+fine sea-boats as you will find the world over. They are of various
+sizes, the largest being of about 350 tons displacement. Their
+weatherly qualities make them excellent mine-sweepers; the powerful
+winches with which in time of peace they used to hoist in their
+trawl-beams enable them to deal efficiently with a mine-sweeping wire.
+Their draught, of from fourteen to sixteen feet, is certainly somewhat
+against them in their war work, but gives them a good hold of the
+water; and as these boats are somewhat down by the stern, their
+propellers are so deep that they never race in the heaviest weather. A
+certain proportion of them carry wireless. At the beginning of the war
+each trawler was armed with a three-pounder gun, which could pierce
+and sink a German submarine of the earlier type. Now the trawlers and
+drifters carry six-pounders, and in some instances twelve-pounders.
+
+The writer was wont to go out to the Dogger Bank with the Hull
+trawlers long ago, when these were all sailing craft, well-found
+ketches, no steam being used save for the donkey engine, whose
+function it was to haul in the trawl-beam; the crew of each vessel
+consisting of five hands, including the small boy and the child cook.
+To him, as to all those who knew our North Sea trawlers in the pre-war
+days, the change that has been effected in the personnel of these
+vessels by war conditions is amazing. Yet these are the same men, the
+same rough, hard-bitten fishermen, as fine sailors as use the seas. As
+I knew them, many of the trawler skippers could not read or write, but
+they knew their North Sea. Charts they despised; with compass and lead
+alone they found their way unerringly even to the coasts of Iceland;
+for they carried a mental chart in their memories, and had an intimate
+knowledge of the soundings of all these waters. They could smell their
+way across the North Sea in the thickest weather, so to speak.
+
+These men, who have been fishermen from infancy and have faced danger
+throughout their lives, brought up in the roughest of schools, now
+belong to the R.N.T.R., the Royal Naval Trawler Reserve, and man the
+mine-sweeping trawlers. Some of them might appear rude in speech and
+manners to residents of garden cities, but to those who know them
+these are true men led by "captains courageous," and they call for the
+admiration and respect of all Englishmen for the way in which they
+have carried out their perilous duties throughout the war. The
+mine-sweeping trawler carries a crew of about fifteen men. One
+scarcely recognises in them the whilom fishermen. The skipper of a
+craft that used to form part of a fishing fleet now has warrant rank
+and is smart in naval uniform. The men, too, wear the badges of a
+distinguished service. The discipline enforced in a mine-sweeping
+trawler now comes nearly up to the standard of the Grand Fleet ships.
+Skippers and men mostly come from the fishing ports of the North
+Sea--Hull, Yarmouth, and the others; Harwich itself, of course, is not
+a fishing centre. The mine-sweeping trawlers are organised in
+divisions of from four to seven vessels, each division being under the
+command of an R.N.R. lieutenant.
+
+What I have said of the trawler skippers and crews also applies to
+those who man the North Sea drifters, which were taken from the
+fishing grounds to do their work among the minefields. These drifters
+are for the most part manned by hardy Scotch fishermen, who, like the
+East Coast trawler men, took to their new work as a duck takes to
+water. These drifters are of lighter draught than the trawlers, and so
+can be employed in shallower waters. They proved of great service, not
+only in mine-sweeping, but also for laying mine nets and for carrying
+out exploratory sweeps. They also took part in the hydrophone patrols,
+when several of these craft used to drift noiselessly, listening by
+means of their hydrophones for the sound of enemy submarines
+travelling below the surface. When a submarine was heard to approach,
+working in combination, they used to ascertain its position by taking
+cross bearings of the directions of the sound as given by their
+respective hydrophones, and gradually closed in on it. When the
+position of the submarine was definitely located, an attendant vessel
+was signalled to, which did its best to drop depth charges on the
+submarine, or, if it came to the surface, attacked it with gunfire.
+But it was, of course, possible for the enemy, who also carried his
+hydrophones, to slip away; and to successfully trap him by the above
+device was an event of rare occurrence. Like the trawlers, the
+drifters carry guns and depth charges.
+
+The trawlers and drifters manned by the men who used to fish with
+these vessels before the war compose the greater portion of the
+Harwich auxiliary force. Shortly after the opening of the war the
+Admiralty took over a number of ordinary paddle passenger steamers for
+the purpose of mine-sweeping, of which several belong to the Harwich
+mine-sweeping unit. These are commanded by R.N.R. captains; carry
+six-pounder or twelve-pounder guns, and depth charges. Being of
+relatively high speed--some of them attaining a sweeping speed of ten
+knots--they can cover a good deal of ground, and being of shallow
+draught they are well adapted for mine-sweeping in the Harwich area.
+For the tidal range in this portion of the North Sea is about eleven
+feet; consequently the paddle steamer, drawing considerably less than
+eleven feet, is enabled at high water to engage in sweeping without
+incurring much risk of striking a German mine, provided that the area
+has been searched at low water and no mines are visible on the
+surface. These paddle steamers, which in time of peace had carried
+thousands of pleasure-seekers on summer holidays, at once proved very
+successful in the work of war. In the year 1917 alone they destroyed
+approximately four hundred enemy mines in the immediate approaches to
+Harwich. On several occasions the vessels of this section had narrow
+escapes; one was twice mined, and one sank in fifty seconds after
+striking a mine.
+
+And lastly we come to that interesting class in this heterogeneous
+force--the motor launches--the compact M.L. boats and other power
+boats of various types, most of which were privately owned pleasure
+craft before the war. Handy, rapid, of light draught, these have
+proved of great service, especially in enclosed and shallow waters.
+They are employed for patrol work, also for mine-sweeping, but are not
+powerful enough for this latter work, except under certain conditions.
+The duty for which they are very well adapted is the exploration of
+enemy minefields at low water, and the sinking of such moored mines as
+appear above the surface, as is not infrequently the case in
+consequence of the inaccurate laying of the mines. The German mines, I
+may mention, were mostly laid at eight feet below the sea-level at low
+water.
+
+The motor launches are commanded by R.N.V.R. officers, for the most
+part yachting men, among them being barristers, solicitors,
+stockbrokers, and other professional men. They have proved that our
+amateur sailors who used to handle their own craft in peace-time know
+their work, can quickly adapt themselves to war conditions, and are of
+the greatest service to their country in time of war. They were ever
+ready at the call of duty to push out into the North Sea when the
+weather conditions were such as would have prevented any sane man
+from venturing forth in time of peace with craft so small. Like the
+gentlemen adventurers of old, they were out for high adventure, and
+they found it.
+
+The mine-sweeping on the enemy minefields was, of course, the
+principal function of the Harwich auxiliary base. The mined areas that
+had to be dealt with by this force extended from the south of
+Lowestoft to the Naze and twenty miles to seawards, while the
+mine-sweepers of the force were also employed in advance of the
+Harwich Force on the mined areas on the further side of the North Sea.
+The Huns had diligently laid their mines in extraordinary numbers in
+the Harwich area. The German mine-laying submarines did their utmost
+to block the approaches to Harwich. Captured German mine charts
+testify to the magnitude of their operations. The Harwich auxiliary
+force had, therefore, to keep open a swept channel running along the
+coast, and also several other channels opening from this coast channel
+eastward, across the minefields, to the swept War-Channel beyond,
+which served as the highway for merchantmen and other vessels passing
+up and down the North Sea. It was also part of the duty of the Harwich
+boats to sweep the War-Channel so far as this channel passes along the
+Harwich area.
+
+Throughout the war the mine-laying work of the Huns was continuous;
+that is, so fast as we cleared a channel of their mines, more were
+laid by their ever-busy submarines. Consequently the work of our
+mine-sweepers had also to be continuous. The Harwich mine-sweepers'
+duty was to sweep the above-mentioned channels each day. As light was
+needed to see and sink the mines after they had been cut adrift, the
+mine-sweepers used to begin their work at daylight, whatever the
+conditions of tide or weather, and until they had completed their task
+no shipping was permitted to proceed up the channels. The risk at low
+water to the mine-sweepers was therefore very great, and heavy were
+their losses. They could not await the comparative security of high
+water, and the preparatory exploratory work of the shallow-draught
+craft at low water could only be carried out when low water happened
+to occur at a very early hour, and even then the time available for
+exploration was very limited. Since the armistice, the mine-sweeping
+is conducted in far safer conditions. No unnecessary risks are taken;
+the preliminary exploration at low water can be done thoroughly, and
+the mine-sweepers can do their part at high water.
+
+For an officer in charge of the War-Channel sweepers the
+responsibility was very great, and often he had to come to a quick
+decision when two or more possible courses of action were open to him
+and it was not easy to foresee which would be the right course, while
+to take the wrong one would probably mean horrible disaster. I will
+now give an example of such a situation. In the first place, let it be
+borne in mind that the conveyance by sea of our foodstuffs, munitions
+of war, and men was a matter of vital importance to England, and that
+delays in transportation had to be reduced to a minimum. The Germans,
+knowing this, for a long time directed all their mine-laying energy to
+that great highway of shipping, the swept War-Channel extending from
+the Sunk to the Shipwash light-vessels--the channel the daily sweeping
+of which was the charge of the Harwich mine-sweepers. Very often,
+owing to the tides being quite unsuitable for sweepers, the choice had
+to be made between two evils--stopping all traffic, or risking the
+sweepers and convoying the traffic through the danger zone.
+
+Now, on the occasion to which I am referring the War-Channel sweepers
+commenced their work at daylight near the Sunk light-vessel, and
+sweeping northwards found themselves at 8 a.m., it being dead low
+water, in the middle of a dangerous freshly laid minefield about half
+way between the Sunk and the Shipwash lightships, and close to the
+line of buoys. As some of the mines were showing on the surface, and
+the others must necessarily have been close underneath, the order was
+given to stop all traffic. Unfortunately the traffic, and particularly
+the south-bound portion of it, was very heavy that day, and before all
+the vessels could be stopped and anchored many of them were in close
+proximity to the minefield. All, however, were safely anchored, and
+two hours later, when the flood tide was making, light-draught
+steamers were set to sweep the area. The job was a difficult one, for
+the sweepers had to twist and turn among the anchored vessels, and in
+two cases mines were swept up within fifty feet of these.
+
+In these circumstances it became apparent that the area could not be
+properly cleared while the merchant vessels lay there at anchor, and
+some further action was necessary. The officer in charge was faced by
+a very difficult problem--either he had to keep the whole fleet held
+up indefinitely, or take the risk of losing one or two of them. In the
+words of one who told me this story, "If the officer in charge delayed
+the traffic the powers that be would damn him, and if he lost any of
+the ships he would be twice damned." So the officer in charge relied
+upon his lucky star to preserve him from both calamities. Choosing the
+most favourable time of tide, he ordered all vessels to weigh anchor
+and steam out of the minefield on a course at right angles to it.
+Happily all the ships got under weigh safely; the sweepers carried on
+and swept up eight mines on the ground where the merchantmen had been
+anchored, thus proving how dangerous had been the situation; and very
+soon after there were sixty-five vessels in sight steaming north and
+south along the line of buoys that mark the channel. As my informant
+said to me, "If anyone spoke of this incident to the officer who gave
+the order, he would probably shrug his shoulders and say, 'I was
+lucky'; but he, and he alone, knows what that dreadful hour of anxiety
+meant to him."
+
+Despite all precautions, many merchant vessels were mined in the
+War-Channel in the course of the war; but these disasters were largely
+due to the carelessness of shipmasters, who at times neglected to
+comply with the instructions that had been given to them. How well the
+Harwich auxiliary vessels carried out their work, and how heavy that
+work was, the following figures show. In the year 1917, the total
+number of enemy mines swept up and destroyed by the mine-sweepers of
+the thirty-three bases of the British Isles amounted to 3400, of which
+over 1000 stand to the credit of the Harwich base. It is a notable
+fact, too, that in the same year 500 mines were destroyed
+consecutively in this area without the loss of a single merchantman,
+whereas the average for the United Kingdom had been one merchantman
+lost to thirteen mines destroyed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WORK OF THE AUXILIARIES
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+WORK OF THE AUXILIARIES
+
+    Mine-sweeping methods--Indicator nets--Heavy
+      losses--Brilliant rescues.
+
+
+Without going into technical details, I will now give a brief
+explanation of the usual methods employed by the mine-sweeping
+trawlers of the Harwich base. Two trawlers steaming abreast at about
+four hundred yards distance apart tow a sweep wire eight hundred yards
+in length, an end of which is attached to each trawler. The wire thus
+drags astern in a great loop, which is kept at the requisite
+depth--that is, at a depth well exceeding the draught of the deepest
+ship which would travel across that area--by kites. This sweep wire
+is serrated, so that when towing it quickly saws through the moorings
+of the mines, which are thus released and rise to the surface. When
+two or more pairs of trawlers are sweeping in unison they adopt what
+may be termed an echelon formation. The second pair of mine-sweepers
+follows the first pair, at a safe distance astern, on a parallel
+course, but on an alignment that causes the space swept by the
+following pair of vessels to somewhat overlap that swept by the
+leading pair, so that no unswept space is left between the two. If a
+third pair of vessels follows, it takes up a similar position astern
+of the second pair; and so on, if there be other pairs engaged in the
+sweep. When a strong cross tide is running, to carry out this
+operation accurately is no easy task. But the skilled North Sea
+fishermen who man the trawlers are the right men for this sort of
+work. They rapidly acquire all the tricks of sweeping, and soon learn
+to detect a mine that has been caught in the sweep by the singing of
+the sweep wire, the feel of it, and other delicate signs. The
+mine-sweeping trawlers are accompanied by a vessel whose duty it is to
+sink or explode by rifle fire the released mines as they appear on the
+surface.
+
+The above explanation of mine-sweeping, of course, deals with very
+elementary matter. For during the war this science has made immense
+progress, and volumes could be written on it. Many are the ingenious
+contrivances that have been introduced to improve the efficiency of
+the sweep. In fact, in all our operations, offensive and defensive,
+below the surface of the sea weird new inventions play an important
+part. Take, for example, that grimly humorous invention the indicator
+net, to lay which was one of the duties of the drifters of the Harwich
+Force. In its early form this was a fine wire net, which, when run
+into by a submarine travelling below the surface, was dragged from its
+moorings and remained attached to the enemy, accompanying him
+whithersoever he went, not impeding his progress, and possibly
+unnoticed by him, but dooming him to destruction. For attached to this
+net by a long line was a buoy containing a torch which was lighted
+automatically when the strain of the tow came on the buoy. So the
+unconscious enemy travelled on underneath, announcing his presence by
+the flaming torch which accompanied him overhead, thus enabling the
+watchful British patrol boats to close in on him and effect his
+destruction with depth charges. The above is an ideal case, for in
+practice the operation was by no means always so simple or so
+successful. But that early type of indicator net has been superseded
+by a much more deadly invention.
+
+A great deal of useful work was done by the Harwich drifters in
+evolving the best method of working the indicator net, and their
+system was eventually adopted as standard by the Admiralty. Great
+perfection was attained in this work. Thus, on one occasion in 1917
+some Harwich drifters sailed to a certain destination in the North
+Sea, and after a week's work in laying and watching their nets
+destroyed three "U" boats. The crews received a reward of L3000 from
+the Admiralty; for L1000 was the prize given for the total destruction
+of one of these enemy submarines.
+
+The mine-sweeping has been described by those who should know as
+having been the hardest service in the North Sea during the war. Sir
+Edward Carson, who inspected the Harwich auxiliary force, in the
+course of a speech, likened the men employed in the mine-sweeping
+craft to soldiers in trenches at the front, who were required to go
+over the top every day. It was indeed arduous and hazardous work. The
+least of the dangers faced was that from the enemy Zeppelins and
+aeroplanes which were constantly bombing the vessels--but here, as
+elsewhere, with little effect; our fishermen took small notice of
+these overhead foes.
+
+It is indeed remarkable how very little damage was ever done by
+Zeppelins at sea. On one occasion, it is true, the Zeppelin crews
+killed a number of their own countrymen--the survivors of the sinking
+_Bluecher_--mistaking them for Englishmen. But our ships suffered
+practically nothing from their frequent attacks. Yet the enemy
+aircraft did their utmost to interfere with the operations of our
+mine-sweepers and mine-net laying drifters. On one occasion a Zeppelin
+hovered over a fleet of the latter craft which were lying in wait
+watching their deadly nets off the Shipwash. The Zeppelin dropped
+about seventeen bombs, some of which fell very close to the vessels,
+exploding violently and throwing up huge columns of water; but not a
+single hit was made and no damage was done.
+
+But the mines amid which their duties took them daily were a very real
+peril. Out of the little Harwich force, twenty-two mine-sweepers were
+sunk by mines in the course of the war, while many others were
+mined--some more than once--but were brought safely back to port. The
+loss of life was heavy. Nearly one-quarter of the officers and men
+were killed in the course of the war. In the case of the trawlers
+there was small chance for the men when their vessel was mined under
+them; but these tough fishermen, whose trade had taught them to face
+danger from their childhood, carried on cheerily among the minefields
+through all the years of the war. Many heroic deeds stand to their
+account.
+
+In times of peace, not few are the wrecks and gallant savings of life
+on the stormy North Sea. But in war-time, with the far graver peril
+from enemy mines and ships added to that of storm or thick weather,
+many were the disasters and many were the courageous rescues of crews
+and passengers by our mine-sweepers. In the period extending from the
+date of the establishment of the Harwich base up to December 31, 1917,
+no fewer than 1065 men, women, and children were picked up and saved
+from mined vessels by the Harwich mine-sweepers--a total which was
+much exceeded later. Often these craft hurried to the rescue at
+fearful risk of being struck themselves by mines of the same group
+that had brought about the disaster. One hears of trawlers that put
+out their dinghies in the roughest weather in order to save lives; for
+example, as when a trawler's dinghy rescued airmen from off the
+dangerous shoal of the Longsand when a heavy sea was breaking over it.
+For the North Sea fisherman, like his brethren in the Navy, is imbued
+with that chivalry of the sea which makes the British sailor what he
+is.
+
+And not only lives but ships with valuable cargoes of food were often
+saved. For example, there is the notable incident of the saving of the
+_Berwen_. In the rapidly falling darkness of a winter day, with a
+strong south-west gale blowing and a heavy sea running, the little
+wooden drifter _Lloyd George_, manned by ten hardy Scotch fishermen,
+while patrolling the War-Channel between the Shipwash and the Sunk
+light-vessels, sighted the large merchant steamer _Berwen_, apparently
+mined and not under control, to the south-westward of the Shipwash.
+
+The _Lloyd George_ immediately steamed at full speed to the assistance
+of the _Berwen_, only to find that the mined ship had been abandoned
+by her crew and was rapidly drifting on to a minefield which stretched
+to leeward of her, where several moored mines could be plainly seen at
+intervals in the rise and fall of the heavy sea. The skipper of the
+drifter, realising the danger and the necessity for immediate action,
+with great skill and wonderful seamanship placed his drifter alongside
+the _Berwen_ and, having put three members of his crew of ten on board
+her, passed a tow-line and commenced to tow her to the south-west,
+away from the minefields.
+
+The little drifter, not fitted for towing, having none of the
+necessary appliances on board, and not having the power to deal with
+so heavy a tow, could make little, if any, progress in the teeth of
+the ever-increasing gale; but she held on to the _Berwen_ and fought
+bravely on throughout the dark night, surrounded by the unknown
+dangers of mines, and was able at the coming of daylight to hand her
+charge over safely to the tugs for which she had wirelessed.
+
+The _Berwen_ eventually reached the Thames with only a few hundred
+tons damaged out of the seven thousand tons of sugar which formed her
+cargo. One is not surprised to hear that a grateful country omitted to
+pay any salvage to the seamen who, by their gallant action, had
+rescued so valuable a cargo, on the ground that the sugar was
+Government property.
+
+Worthy of note, too, is the good work done by the trawler _Resono_.
+On November 17, 1915, when off the Galloper light-vessel, she
+witnessed the blowing up by a mine of the merchant steamer _Ulrikon_.
+She took off all the crew of the lost ship, and no sooner had this
+rescue been effected than another steamer, the _Athomas_, struck a
+mine and was badly injured by the explosion. Her crew abandoned her
+and were picked up. The officer commanding the _Resono_, observing
+that the _Athomas_ was not in immediate danger of sinking, decided to
+salvage her. The men composing her own crew refused to go on board of
+her again, though it was explained to them that they would have to go
+through the minefield in any case, and that they would be safer in a
+ship of large tonnage than in a trawler. Therefore the captain of the
+_Resono_ called for volunteers from his own crew, put them on board
+the _Athomas_ despite the heavy weather, towed her safely away, and
+handed her over to the Sheerness Patrol in sheltered waters. The
+_Resono_, after having accomplished much good work, eventually was
+blown up by a mine off the Sunk light-vessel on Christmas Day, 1915.
+
+Another well-known trawler was the _Lord Roberts_. During her long
+career of patrol work in the Harwich area she went to the assistance
+of many mined ships and rescued a very large percentage of their
+crews. Unfortunately, she was mined and lost in October 1916, with a
+loss of one officer and eight men. The _Lord Roberts_ had become a
+familiar and welcome sight to the merchant vessels using the channels
+off Harwich, and there was sorrow when she was lost. One Trinity
+House pilot, missing her from her usual patrol ground, wrote a letter
+to the authorities asking what had become of "our old friend, the
+_Lord Roberts_."
+
+As I have shown, a large vessel with watertight compartments has a
+fair chance of surviving the effect of a mine. But with the small
+vessel it is otherwise, and on her the effect of the explosion of a
+German mine is indeed terrible. Thus the official message reporting
+the loss, March 31, 1917, of the drifter _Forward III._, of 89 tons,
+read, "_Forward III._ mined. No survivors." As far as can be gathered
+from the circumstances, the drifter must have struck the mine with her
+keel dead amidships, and when the smoke cleared away there was nothing
+to be seen on the water beyond a few broken pieces of wood. A large
+section of her wooden keel came down on end, pierced the deck of the
+drifter _White Lilac_, and remained standing upright, looking, as it
+was put to me, like "a monument to the gallant men who had gone."
+
+The loss of the trawler _Burnley_ in November 1916 affords another
+example of the total disappearance of vessel and crew after the
+striking of a mine. The _Burnley_ was in charge of a subdivision of
+trawlers carrying out a patrol in the vicinity of the Shipwash
+light-vessel. At the close of the day the senior officer in the
+_Burnley_, relying on the superior speed of his vessel to overtake the
+others, ordered the two trawlers under him to proceed to their
+anchorage in Hollesley Bay. What exactly happened after this will
+never be known, but it is surmised that the _Burnley_ stopped to
+investigate something suspicious. The _Holdene_, the senior of the
+other two trawlers, reached the anchorage as night was setting in, and
+had just dropped her anchor when a flash was seen on the eastern
+horizon. This was followed by a dull, heavy explosion, which shook the
+_Holdene_ from stem to stern. The anchor was immediately weighed and
+the _Holdene_ steamed at full speed to the scene of the explosion;
+but, though she cruised about for two hours in the darkness, nothing
+was to be seen of the _Burnley_ or her crew. On the following day a
+fresh group of mines was discovered in the vicinity, so it is probable
+that the _Burnley_ had struck one of this group very soon after the
+mines had been laid by German submarines.
+
+Among the losses of the Harwich mine-sweepers may be noted that of
+the paddle steamer _Queen of the North_, which was mined and sunk
+while engaged in mine-sweeping. Despite the gallant efforts of her
+consorts, one officer and nineteen men only were saved, seven officers
+and twenty-two men being lost. Mine-sweeping in the War-Channel, as I
+have explained, had to be carried out whatever the weather, and in
+winter the weather conditions often made the work extremely hazardous.
+For example, on one occasion a division had swept up eleven enemy
+mines. Before any of these mines could be sunk by rifle fire a
+blinding snowstorm swept over the sea, making it impossible for the
+vessels to distinguish either each other or the drifting mines.
+Nevertheless the R.N.R. officer who was in command of the division, by
+exercise of good judgment, extricated his vessels from the dangerous
+area, and twenty minutes later, when the weather cleared, he was
+enabled to destroy all the mines.
+
+One of the many dangers that attend mine-sweeping is caused by the
+occasional failure of the sweep wire to cut a mine adrift. The mine
+and its sinker come up the sweep wire when the latter is hove in, at
+the great risk of causing an explosion under the vessel's stern. Thus,
+the paddle steamer _Mercury_, while sweeping off the Sunk, brought up
+three mines and their sinkers in this way. An explosion resulted,
+which blew her stern off. Fortunately, no lives were lost. She was
+towed into port and placed in dry dock for repairs. She was an unlucky
+ship, for on her very first trip after the repairs had been effected
+she struck another mine while sweeping close to the scene of her
+former accident. On this occasion her bows were blown away and two
+lives were lost. Again she was towed back to port and repaired, and
+she is now once more engaged in mine-sweeping.
+
+There is also a serious danger of a mine fouling a vessel's anchor and
+coming up with it to explode under the vessel's bows, as is shown in
+the case of the drifter _Cape Colony_, whose crew experienced a
+miraculous escape from death. On the evening of January 7, 1917, in
+company of other drifters, the _Cape Colony_ laid her mine nets under
+cover of the darkness. She was then told off with another drifter to
+anchor in the vicinity of the Shipwash to work the hydrophones during
+the night. At daylight on the following morning the signal was given
+to weigh anchor. The mate of the _Cape Colony_, leaning over the bow
+to see the cable come in, suddenly saw the horns of a mine, apparently
+foul of the anchor, on the edge of the water and within a foot of the
+stem. With great presence of mind he jumped to the capstan and stopped
+heaving in, but was unable to reverse and lower away. He immediately
+shouted a warning, ran aft, and jumped into the sea, followed by the
+rest of the crew. The last man had just got into the water when a
+heavy swell rolled along, lifted the drifter's bow, and exploded the
+mine, which blew half the drifter into matchwood. She pitched forward
+and quickly sank by the head. The crew were rapidly picked up by the
+boat from the other drifter, none the worse for their adventure.
+
+Mines in their tens of thousands still lie about the North Sea to
+endanger shipping, and probably it will take a year to clear them. For
+sweeping up these mines the Admiralty are giving the men a special
+rate of pay, and only those who volunteer are now employed. The danger
+incurred is practically negligible when compared with the risk that
+attended these operations in war-time.
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Even those querulous and ignorant pessimists who, during the war, used
+to ask, "What is the Navy doing?" must now know what the Navy has
+done. Our Navy kept open the sea routes of the world to ourselves and
+our allies, while wholly closing them to our enemies. Had our
+politicians permitted it, the blockade by our Navy would have brought
+the war to an earlier conclusion. The Germans, driven from the surface
+of the sea, put their trust in their murderous submarine campaign.
+Finding that this failed altogether against our Navy, they directed it
+against the merchant shipping of the world. That attempt too failed.
+Our Navy gradually mastered the submarines, until at last, towards the
+close of the war, the crews of the German "U" boats refused to put to
+sea. There was no great decisive naval action, for the good reason
+that the High Sea Fleet would not fight it out with our Grand Fleet,
+but retired to the shelter of the German minefields whenever it was
+attacked. In vain inferior forces were sent to tempt the enemy out.
+The German raids on the East Coast had no military value, and
+apparently had frightfulness as their sole object. Their fast ships
+used to rush across the North Sea under cover of the fog, bombard our
+undefended watering-places for half an hour or so, then hurry home
+again. These raids reminded one of the mischievous urchin who rings a
+front-door bell and runs away. But though there was no great naval
+action, there was plenty of hard fighting at sea; many a bold
+enterprise was carried through and many a gallant deed was performed.
+
+Of the great British Navy the Harwich Forces formed but a small part,
+but they were typical of the whole Navy, and it was no small part that
+they took in far the most important theatre of the naval war--the
+North Sea. And now the Harwich Force of light cruisers and destroyers
+and the Submarine Flotilla, having carried through their great duty,
+are to be dispersed over the four quarters of the globe. Many have
+already sailed to the West Indies, to the Mediterranean, to the China
+seas, and elsewhere. The close bands of brothers who fought and died
+together through the great war are now to be broken up; and it
+requires little imagination to feel that they are loth thus to
+separate.
+
+In these forces lives a spirit that recalls that of the military
+orders in the chivalrous days of the Crusades, when gallant knights
+were banded together to fight and sacrifice themselves for a great
+cause. To live for a while in these ships is to find oneself in a
+purer, breezier atmosphere--an atmosphere of simple loyalty,
+old-fashioned patriotism, devotion to the Service, and cheery
+good-fellowship. These young men--for in the little ships they are all
+young men, full of the joy of life, though veterans in war with great
+experiences--make one feel sorry for the people who, in the coming
+millennium that is being prepared by the politicians, will never have
+the chance of fighting for their country on land or sea.
+
+Englishmen, and especially English naval officers, are not given to
+display of sentiment; but the members of the Harwich Force are justly
+proud of that Force, and regard themselves as indeed forming a band of
+brothers. Thus, after the signing of the armistice, at a dinner which
+was given by the captains of the destroyers of the Harwich Force to
+the great sailor who commanded that Force during the war, someone
+recited the stirring speech which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of
+Henry V. before Agincourt. These memorable words indeed well fitted
+the occasion:
+
+    This day is called--the feast of Crispian:
+    He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
+    Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,
+    And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
+    He that shall live this day, and see old age,
+    Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends
+    And say--to-morrow is Saint Crispian:
+    Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
+    And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.
+    Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
+    But he'll remember, with advantages,
+    What feats he did that day: Then shall our names,
+    Familiar in their mouths as household words,--
+    Harry the king, Bedford, and Exeter,
+    Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster--
+    Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered:
+    This story shall the good man teach his son;
+    And Crispian Crispin shall ne'er go by,
+    From this day to the ending of the world,
+    But we in it shall be remembered:
+    We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
+    For he to-day that sheds his blood with me,
+    Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
+    This day shall gentle his condition:
+    And gentlemen of England, now a-bed,
+    Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
+    And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks,
+    That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
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