The British Navy Book Part 20

For various reasons, which we have not room to discuss here, the Germans had made up their minds that in August, 1914, Great Britain would _not_ fight, and that they would be able to carry out their programme against France, Russia, and Belgium, after which they would decide exactly their selected moment to attack us. At the outbreak of war their High Seas Fleet was apparently lying in different deep fiords on the Norwegian coast. What it was doing there, goodness only knows; but we may be sure it was not for anybody's good, except, possibly, Germany's.

Anyway, these ships were not in a position to carry out the programme laid down for war with England, and so scurried back to the security of their fortified bases. So, also, they were not quite ready for raiding our commerce. Still, they were able to put a good many cruisers, regular and auxiliary, on the ocean highways, and for a time gave us a good deal of trouble. In the Mediterranean they had the big battle-cruiser _Goeben_ and the small cruiser _Breslau_, and on the morning of 4th August these two ships bombarded Bona and Philippeville on the Algerian coast. They did but little damage; in fact, it was merely a "runaway knock". The next morning they arrived at Messina, a neutral port, where they had either to remain indefinitely and be disarmed or leave within a prescribed period. The German officers decided to leave, and after a theatrical business of devoting themselves to death, and depositing their wills and private papers with the German Consul--taking good care to report this to the Berlin Press, which published glowing accounts of the "mad daring" of their devoted seamen--they got under way and steamed out, with colours flying and bands playing.

Soon after midnight--6th-7th August--the look-outs on board the _Gloucester_, a light cruiser carrying no heavier gun than a 6-inch, "spotted" them moving along under cover of the land. After steering a parallel course for some time she crossed their sterns to get between them and the land in order to see them better, and hung closely to them all night and morning. "We let the two ships go on under cover of the darkness," wrote one of the crew, "and they were moving without lights at about 23 knots, and then followed almost at full speed. The _Goeben_ went on ahead, and the _Breslau_ not far behind her. Just about two o'clock the _Breslau_ slowed down.... As far as we could tell she fired two torpedoes ... and then discharged several salvoes from her 4-inch guns. We at once replied with our fore 6-inch gun, and, although it was dark, we found that with the second sh.e.l.l we cleared her quarter-deck.... Neither the torpedoes nor sh.e.l.ls from the _Breslau_ hit their mark.... Although they were slightly faster vessels, we kept our distance from them without losing anything all day, and in the afternoon sighted the Greek coast after having made the fastest run across that open bit of water that ever was made. The weather was fine, and there was not a sight of another war-ship except the Germans....

When they were off Cape Matapan, the most southerly point of the Greek mainland, the _Breslau_ stopped again, as she had done in the night, and waited for us to come on. This time we did not wait for her to open fire, but discharged our fore 6-inch gun directly we got within range."[89]

"After the first shot," wrote another _Gloucester_, "our lads were quite happy, and they kept firing as quickly as possible. One chap near swallowed his 'chew of 'baccy' when the first shot fell short. The next one he spat on for luck, and it took half the _Breslau's_ funnel away.

He repeated the operation on the next shot, which cleared her quarter-deck and put her after-gun out of action. Then he began to smile."[90]

This interchange of compliments lasted nearly five-and-twenty minutes.

The _Breslau_ fired heavily, but, though her gunnery was good, she had nothing bigger than a 4-inch gun, and the _Gloucester_ was so well handled by her captain--W. A. H. Kelly, M.V.O.--that every salvo arrived just after she had left the spot where it arrived. At last the big _Goeben_ turned slowly round and approached the plucky little British cruiser and opened fire, but without effect. As a single shot from her heavy guns would have put the _Gloucester_ out of action, and probably sunk her, she withdrew in accordance with her instructions. The _Goeben_ and _Breslau_ eventually arrived at Constantinople, where the farce of a sale to Turkey was carried out; but they left behind a good deal of the prestige of the German Navy and a new phrase for our bluejackets'

vocabulary--the "_Goeben_ glide"--that is, to "skedaddle rather than fight".

About five German cruisers were known to be in the Atlantic, and a considerable force of both our own and the French cruisers set to work to "round them up". The _Konig Wilhelm der Grosse_, a big armed mercantile cruiser of 14,000 tons and ten 4-inch guns, was "bagged" by the _Highflyer_ off the Oro River on the West African coast on 26th August. She had sunk three of our merchantmen, and was holding up a couple more when the _Highflyer_ hove in sight. The German, a much faster vessel, was made fast to a captured collier, from which she was coaling, which enabled the _Highflyer_, which dated from 1900, to get within range with her heavier guns. "If all British ships shoot as straight as the _Highflyer_," said the captain of _Konig Wilhelm der Grosse_, "I shall be sorry for our poor fellows in the North Sea."

Nearly a month later the _Carmania_, a big armed liner, sank the _Cap Trafalgar_, a similar vessel--which was disguised as a "Castle" liner with grey hull and red funnels--off the Island of Trinidad to the eastward of Rio de Janeiro.

"We sighted the German", wrote an officer on board the _Carmania_, "about 10 a.m. on 14th September, in the South Atlantic. She was coaling from a collier, and two others were standing off. On sighting us the _Cap Trafalgar_ hurried off, smothering the colliers, and soon after the latter steered to the eastward and the _Cap Trafalgar_ to the southwards. We steamed after her at top speed, and when about 4 miles off, she turned and steered towards us. We were cleared for action, and had been standing by our guns for some time, all strangely fascinated by the movements of our enemy. When about 3-1/2 miles off we fired our challenge shot across her bows, and immediately after this she displayed her colours at the masthead, and fired her first shot from her starboard after-guns. This shot came right close over our heads, dropping in the water. Then the firing from both ships became fast and furious.

Projectiles and splinters from bursting sh.e.l.ls showered around us. The engagement began at 12.10 midday and lasted hot until about 1.10 p.m., when she showed signs of having been badly hit, and was taking a heavy list to starboard, and was on fire fore and aft. We were also on fire on our fore-bridge. Our bridge-telegraphs and steering-gear were completely wrecked, and the captain's cabin, the chart-house, and a number of officers' quarters were gutted. We were also badly holed by her fire. When we found we had crippled our enemy, and that she was sinking, we ceased firing, although her colours were still flying. She gradually listed over till her funnels nearly touched the water. Then she settled down forward till her second funnel almost disappeared. At last she rolled over, showing her keel and propellers, stood up on end, and gradually a.s.sumed a perpendicular position and dived out of sight.

"We could make out some boats with survivors, and one of the colliers rendered a.s.sistance. We had to clear away, because low down on the horizon the signalman saw smoke and what appeared to be the _Dresden_.

We steered away south, and then doubled on our course. By that time darkness was setting in, and we thus escaped her clutches."

An auxiliary cruiser, of course, would not stand much chance in a duel with a man-of-war cruiser, as was shown by that between the _Highflyer_ and the _Konig Wilhelm der Grosse_, a much newer, larger, and faster ship. Rather later in the year the _Navarra_, another German auxiliary cruiser of the Hamburg-Amerika line, was sunk also in South Atlantic waters by the British auxiliary cruiser _Orama_, an Orient liner. The Germans do not appear to have put up much of a fight, and the British gunnery proved much superior, but details are wanting.[91]

If s.p.a.ce permitted, a good deal more might be written about the cruiser operations in the Atlantic, but we have now to turn our attention to the Indian Ocean. The first incident to be noticed is an adverse one to the British. The _Pegasus_, a small cruiser dating from 1899, after having in conjunction with the _Astrea_ destroyed the German wireless station at Dar-es-Salem, and sunk the gunboat _Mowe_ and a floating-dock, was caught while overhauling her machinery in the harbour of Zanzibar by the German light cruiser _Konigsberg_, a much newer vessel.

The _Konigsberg_ approached at full speed at five o'clock on Sunday morning, 20th September, and, having sunk the British patrol boat by three shots, opened fire on the _Pegasus_ from 5 miles distance, closing to 7000 yards. The _Pegasus_, being at anchor, presented an easy target, and the German fire was so well directed that in a quarter of an hour the only guns she could bring to bear were put out of action.

After an interval the German re-opened fire for another fifteen minutes, after which she stood out to sea. The British crew, caught under such disadvantageous circ.u.mstances, showed true heroism, though, as may be supposed, they suffered very severely. The ensign was twice shot away, but afterwards held up proudly by hand by two men of the detachment of Royal Marines, who stationed themselves in the most conspicuous place they could find. One was killed by a sh.e.l.l and his place was at once taken by another comrade. The _Pegasus_ was holed badly on the water-line, her fires had to be put out, and she was run aground in shallow water but subsequently driven by wind and tide into deeper water, where she sank.

It was at about this time that the German light cruiser _Emden_ began to gain notoriety. She had belonged to the German squadron in China, but had slipped away south, and now began to sink one after another of our merchantmen in the Indian Ocean. This was in contravention of international law, but as, generally speaking, her commander, Captain Muller, saved their crews, and showed both dash and humanity, the British public were more or less inclined to look with a lenient eye on his semi-piratical proceedings. He fired a few shots at Madras and destroyed an oil-tank, and at Singapore torpedoed the _Jemtchug_, a Russian gunboat, and the _Mousquet_, a French destroyer. The _Emden_ was enabled to approach unsuspected on account of having rigged up an extra funnel and hoisted j.a.panese colours. However, her day was yet to come.

By this time British, Russian, j.a.panese, and French cruisers in the East were on the qui vive, as well as those belonging to the newly-formed fleet of the Australian Commonwealth, and it is to one of the Australian cruisers, the _Sydney_, that the honour of ridding the seas of the "wanted" _Emden_ belongs. On 9th November the raiding German arrived at the Cocos Keeling Islands, an isolated group in the Indian Ocean, and, landing a party of men, set about destroying the British wireless station. Luckily the operators were suspicious of the strange craft, and managed to get off a message which reached the cruisers _Melbourne_ and _Sydney_ in a somewhat broken condition. "Strange warship--off entrance"

it ran. This was about seven in the morning, when they were 50 miles to the eastward of the islands, and in charge of a convoy. The _Melbourne_, as senior officer, ordered the _Sydney_ off at full speed to investigate. Before half-past nine the tops of the _Emden's_ funnels were made out close to the feathery palm tops denoting the position of the Cocos. She was 10 or 14 miles distant, but she "spotted" the _Sydney_, and very soon opened fire at a tremendous range.

"Shortly after, we started in on her," wrote one of the _Sydney's_ officers.[92] "The Australian opened fire from her port guns. Before long a shot from the _Emden_ knocked out nearly the whole gun's crew of No. 2 gun on the starboard side."

"There was a lot of 'Whee-oo, whee-oo, whee-oo'," continued the officer above quoted, "and the 'But-but-but' of the sh.e.l.l striking the water beyond, and, as the range was pretty big, this was quite possible, as the angle of descent would be pretty steep. Coming aft, I heard a shot graze the top of No. 1 Starboard. A petty-officer now came up limping from aft, and said that he had just carried an officer below (he was not dangerously hit) and that the after-control position had been knocked right out, and everyone wounded (they were marvellously lucky).

I told him if he was really able to carry on to go aft to No. 2 Starboard and see there was no fire, and, if there was, that any charges about were to be thrown overboard at once. He was very game and limped away aft. He got aft to find a very bad cordite fire just starting. He, with others, got this put out. I later noticed some smoke rising aft, and ran aft to find it was but the remnant of what they had put out, but found two men, one with a pretty badly wounded foot, sitting on the gun-platform, and a petty-officer lying on the deck a little farther aft with a nasty wound in his back. I found one of the men was unwounded but badly shaken. However, he pulled himself together when I spoke to him, and told him I wanted him to do what he could for the wounded. I then ran back to my group.[93]

"All the time we were going at 25 and sometimes as much as 26 knots. We had the speed of the _Emden_ and fought as suited ourselves.... Best of all was to see the gun-crews fighting their guns quite unconcerned. When we were last in Sydney, we took on board three boys from the training-ship _Tingira_ who had volunteered. The captain said: 'I don't really want them, but as they are keen, I'll take them'. Now the action was only a week or two afterwards, but the two out of the three who were directly under my notice were perfectly splendid. One little slip of a boy did not turn a hair, and worked splendidly. The other boy, a very st.u.r.dy youngster, carried projectiles from the hoist to his gun throughout the action without so much as thinking of cover. I do think that for two boys absolutely new to their work they were splendid....

Coming aft the port side from the forecastle gun, I was met by a lot of men cheering and waving their caps. I said: 'What's happened?' 'She's gone, sir, she's gone!' I ran to the ship's side and no sign of a ship could I see. If one could have seen a dark cloud of smoke it would have been different. But I could see no sign of anything. So I called out: 'All hands turn out the life-boats; there will be men in the water'.

They were just starting to do this when someone called out: 'She's still firing, sir,' and everyone ran back to the guns.

"What had happened was, a cloud of yellow or very light-coloured smoke had obscured her from view, so that looking in her direction one's impression was that she had totally disappeared. Later we turned again and engaged her on the other broadside. By now her three funnels and her foremast had been shot away, and she was on fire aft. We turned again, and after giving her a salvo or two with the starboard guns, saw her run ash.o.r.e on North Keeling Island. So at 11.20 a.m. we ceased firing, the action having lasted one hour forty minutes. Our hits were not very serious. We were 'hulled' in about three places. The sh.e.l.l that exploded in the boys' mess-deck, apart from ruining the poor little beggars'

clothes, provided a magnificent stock of trophies. For two or three days they kept finding fresh pieces. The only important damage was the after control-platform, which is one ma.s.s of gaping holes and tangled iron, and the foremost range-finder shot away. Other hits, though 'interesting', don't signify." As for the _Emden_, she was a perfect shambles. Her voice-pipes had been shot away early in the action, and, with the exception of the forecastle, everything was wrecked on the upper deck. The German party on sh.o.r.e seized a schooner, the _Ayesha_, and contrived to escape to sea.

Thus ended the adventurous career of the _Emden_, by far the most successful of the German commerce-raiders. In seven weeks she had destroyed something like 70,000 tons of British shipping, so that the news of her suppression was most welcome in Great Britain. But no one who has not been in Australia will be able to realize the delight and exultation the news of the _Sydney's_ exploit brought to the people of that island continent. That one of their own ships, out of the many that were looking out for the _Emden_, should so effectively have disposed of her was the most magnificent and acceptable news that could be imagined, and it is hoped that her guns will be salved and placed as trophies in the big Australian cities.

Almost simultaneously another sea-wasp, the _Konigsberg_, the same vessel which had so mauled the _Pegasus_, besides doing other mischief among our merchant-shipping, was "cornered" by the cruiser _Chatham_ in the Rufigi River on the East Coast of Africa. Harried this way and that by our cruisers, she at last took refuge so far up the river that she was out of range from the _Chatham's_ guns. At the same time she landed a party of her men on an island at the mouth of the river with Maxims and quick-firing guns. Here they entrenched themselves. The British at once sent secretly to Zanzibar and procured a steamer--the _Newbridge_--loaded with 1500 tons of coal, which, upon arrival, they deliberately anch.o.r.ed across the river channel, in spite of the fire directed upon them by the German detachment on the island. When all was ready, her crew took to their boats, blew three holes in her bottom, and sank her, effectually "bottling up" the _Konigsberg_. Several casualties were incurred during this operation. The German cruiser after this contrived to conceal her exact position for some time, by fastening the tops of palm-trees to her masts, but an aeroplane, being brought down the coast in the _Kinfauns Castle_, flew over her and indicated her position by means of smoke bombs, enabling her to be fired at, at long range, by the 12-inch guns of the battleship _Goliath_, which had now arrived on the scene.

Powerful as were the battleship's guns, they were unable to effect her destruction. It was not until several months had elapsed that the British Navy was able to finish off the German cruiser. The work was eventually carried out by the little monitors _Severn_ and _Mersey_, which had made their _debut_ on the Belgian coast. While the _Weymouth_ and _Pioneer_ engaged the guns on the island and others which had been mounted on the river bank, the two monitors steamed up the river and engaged the _Konigsberg_. The battle lasted for a long time, as the raider was so ensconced in jungle that the airmen who were "spotting"

for the British found the greatest difficulty in seeing where their shot fell. Most of the time the German got six guns to bear on the monitors, and generally fired salvoes. After six hours her masts were still standing, but shortly afterwards she was set on fire by a salvo from the monitors. Her effective guns were reduced to one, and before long she ceased fire altogether.

FOOTNOTES:

[89] _Naval and Military Record._

[90] _Ibid._

[91] _Journal of Commerce_, Weekly Edition, 14th April, 1915.

[92] In the _Times_.

[93] i.e. of guns.

CHAPTER XIX

A Reverse and a Victory

"Through the fog of the fight we could dimly see, As ever the flame from the big guns flashed, That Cradock was doomed, yet his men and he, With their plates shot to junk and their turrets smashed, Their ship heeled over, her funnels gone, Were fearlessly, doggedly, fighting on.

"We could see by the flashes, the dull, dark loom Of their hull as it bore toward the Port of Doom, Away on the water's misty rim-- Cradock and his few hundred men, Never, in time, to be seen again.

"While into the darkness their great sh.e.l.ls screamed, Little the valiant Germans dreamed That Cradock was teaching them how to go When the fate their daring, itself, had sealed, Waiting, as yet, o'er the ocean's verge, To their eyes undaunted would stand revealed; And snared by a stronger, swifter foe, Out-cla.s.sed, out-metalled, out-ranged, out-shot By heavier guns, but not out-fought, They, too, would sink in the sheltering surge."

JOHN E. DOLSON. (In an American Newspaper.)

A SAD but glorious day in the annals of the British Navy has now to be referred to--the defeat of Sir Christopher Cradock's squadron off the coast of Chile, with the loss of the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ with all hands. Sad because of the defeat and the loss of so many gallant officers and men--glorious on account of the way they fought and met their deaths. It is the only thing approaching a naval victory scored by the Germans up to the time of writing.

The German squadron, which was commanded by Admiral Graf von Spee, consisted of the _Scharnhorst_, _Gneisenau_, _Dresden_, _Nurnberg_, and _Leipzig_. The two former had been on the Chinese station and were big armoured cruisers of 11,600 tons, dating from 1907. They were sister ships, each mounting eight 82-inch, six 6-inch, and several smaller guns. The _Scharnhorst_ (flag) was the crack gunnery ship of the German fleet. The other three ships were third-cla.s.s cruisers of between 3000 and 4000 tons, similar to the _Emden_, and carried ten 41-inch guns apiece, firing 34-pound projectiles. They had been carrying on various separate commerce-raiding operations in the Pacific, had bombarded the French port of Papeete in Tahiti, and now, when the numerous cruisers of the allied Powers were beginning to make the Pacific Ocean "unhealthy"

for them, had apparently concentrated off the Chilian coast with the view of slipping out of it into the Atlantic in hopes of doing further mischief, after capturing the Falkland Islands as a base, or possibly of eventually attempting to find their way back to a German port.

On 1st November at 2 p.m. a British squadron consisting of the _Good Hope_ (14,100 tons), _Monmouth_ (9800 tons), _Glasgow_ (4800 tons), and _Otranto_ (12,100 tons) were at sea to the westward of Coronel, in Chile, when it was reported that there were enemy's ships in the neighbourhood. The two first-named ships were armoured cruisers of large size, but not too well gunned for their displacement. The _Good Hope_ had a couple of 92-inch guns and sixteen 6-inch guns, the _Monmouth_ fourteen 6-inch guns. The _Glasgow_ was a light cruiser with two 6-inch and ten 4-inch guns, while the _Otranto_ was merely a big mail-boat, belonging to the Orient line, armed as a mercantile auxiliary.

At 4.20 the smoke of hostile ships was made out on the horizon, and about a quarter to six the British squadron was formed in line ahead in the order in which their names have been already noted. The enemy came in sight about this time at 12 miles distance, but kept away as long as the sun was above the horizon, as it showed them up well to our gunners and was in the eyes of their own. As soon as it dipped, the light was entirely in their favour. The grey forms of their ships were but dimly discernible, whilst ours were silhouetted black against the ruddy glow of the sunset.

The following account of the action is from the pen of one of the crew of the _Glasgow_:[94] "By 6 p.m. we were steaming abreast each other.

The _Monmouth_, as she pa.s.sed us close on our port side, gave us a few cheers, which were readily returned. Everyone was stripped and ready, and all seemed satisfied to think that we had found the enemy after searching for nearly three months. The sea was still very rough, and the ships were washing down forward. The enemy's squadron seemed to be going faster than we were, and were getting on our port bow. The sun was setting in the west, and we must have made very nice targets for the Germans, as we were between them and the sun. They had some dark clouds behind them and were difficult to see even then. As soon as the sun had set they altered course towards us, and we turned slightly towards them, the _Otranto_ going away off our starboard quarter and taking no part in the action. As soon as the enemy were within 14,000 yards they opened fire, each of the armoured ships firing at the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_, while the two smaller ships concentrated their fire on the _Glasgow_, although they did not open fire until the fourth ship had joined them and they had got much closer than when the armoured ships opened fire.

"The _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_ returned the enemy's fire, and soon the action became general. We were very close to each other on the British side, but the Germans were much farther apart. The enemy soon got the range of our ships and were hitting the _Good Hope_ and the _Monmouth_ very often, and it was not long before the _Good Hope_ was on fire. Soon after the _Monmouth_ took fire, but this was kept under.

"After about forty minutes the _Good Hope_ seemed to break out of the line and close towards the enemy, and she was not seen again (although some state that she was still firing her after-turret)." According to the official report made by the captain of the _Glasgow_: "At 7.50 p.m.