The British Navy Book Part 21

an immense explosion occurred on board _Good Hope_ amidships, flames reaching 200 feet high. Total destruction must have followed. It was now quite dark."

The _Monmouth_ and _Glasgow_ still fought on gamely, both sides firing at the flashes, the Germans firing salvoes. "The _Monmouth_ was very badly damaged by this time", continues the account we have already quoted, "and she hauled off to starboard, followed by the _Glasgow_, as the big ships had now commenced to fire on us as well as the small ones.

It was very dark now, but owing to the fire on the _Monmouth_ no doubt the enemy had a good mark to aim at. The enemy's fire ceased as soon as we turned away to starboard. It could easily be seen as we pa.s.sed the _Monmouth_ that she had suffered heavily, and it appeared to me that she was still on fire. She also had a list to port and was down by the head.

"Our captain made a signal to her, asking if she was all right, and was told that she was making water badly forward and was trying to get her stern to the sea. He then asked him if he could steer north-west, but received no reply. The enemy were now coming towards us, and we thought that we might have drawn them away from the _Monmouth_, but in a few minutes we could see search-lights and gun-flashes, and we knew that it was the _Monmouth_ they were firing on." Under the growing light of a full moon, which was now rising slowly in the stormy heavens, the practically undamaged German squadron was seen bearing down directly on the little _Glasgow_, which, as she could by no possibility be of any a.s.sistance to the _Monmouth_, made off at full speed to avoid annihilation, and by 8.50 had run the enemy out of sight. About half an hour later a number of flashes were seen afar off, which, without doubt, marked the death throes of the gallant _Monmouth_. The _Glasgow_ was badly knocked about. She had an enormous gash in her side 9 feet long and 3 feet wide, besides minor injuries. But she lived not only to fight another day, but to take signal revenge on her opponents.

"Nothing could have been more admirable than the conduct of the officers and men throughout. Though it was most trying to receive a great volume of fire without chance of returning it adequately, all kept perfectly cool, there was no wild firing, and discipline was the same as at battle-practice. When target ceased to be visible, gunlayers spontaneously ceased fire."[95]

It must be borne in mind that the only guns in the British squadron equal in power to the sixteen 82-inch much more modern weapons of the two big German armoured cruisers were the two 92-inch guns carried by the _Good Hope_, one of which was knocked out ten minutes after the battle began.

The _Glasgow_, on the second day after her escape, had a curious experience, if we are to believe the story of one of her men, as she ran plump into a sleeping whale! "That was another shock for us. The ship trembled and we all rushed up on deck to find out what had happened."

The _Glasgow_ picked up the pre-Dreadnought battleship _Canopus_, which at the time of the fight was unfortunately 200 miles away to the southward, and both ships proceeded in company to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. The German ships do not appear to have followed them, but went to Valparaiso, presumably to send home news of their victory.

The news of the disaster to Sir Christopher Cradock's squadron naturally created great enthusiasm in Germany and corresponding grief in this country. But the naval authorities, in dead secrecy, at once prepared to settle accounts with Von Spee and his ships. On the 8th December, just over a month after the catastrophe off Coronel, their efforts bore the fullest fruit. On the previous day a squadron consisting of the battle-cruisers _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ and the cruisers _Carnarvon_, _Cornwall_, _Bristol_, and _Kent_, under the command of Sir F. C. Doveton St.u.r.dee, had arrived at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands, their crews greeting the _Glasgow_, which was lying there in company with the _Canopus_, with round after round of cheering.

The inhabitants of these remote islands were unfeignedly glad to see the new arrivals, since they had received warning that they might expect a German raid. At 8 a.m. the look-outs on Sapper Hill to the south-west of Port Stanley reported columns of smoke coming up over the south-west horizon. Soon afterwards a two-funnelled ship and a four-funneller were made out, and the _Kent_ was ordered out to the harbour mouth and orders given for all ships to raise steam for full speed. The _Kent_, it is interesting to note, went into action this day flying the silken ensign and jack which had been presented by the ladies of Kent on her first commission. To conceal the presence of the two big battle-cruisers, which might be spotted by their tripod masts, these two ships were ordered to stoke up with oil fuel, and the thick black greasy smoke billowing from their funnels soon shrouded the harbour with a dusky veil. Twenty minutes later other smoke columns were reported more to the southward.

The two ships first observed, which proved to be the _Gneisenau_ and _Nurnberg_, continued to advance steadily towards the island, training their guns on the wireless station, and about an hour and a half after they had first been sighted came within 11,000 yards of the _Canopus_, which let fly at them with her big guns, firing over the low-lying land between the south side of the harbour and the open sea. The Germans at once hoisted their colours and turned away. Then, seeing the _Kent_ at the harbour mouth, they turned towards her, but very shortly afterwards turned away again and went off at full speed towards their consorts, who were now coming up. It is thought that they must have got a glimpse of the "surprise packet", in the shape of the _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_, that was awaiting their advent.

At a quarter to ten the _Carnarvon_, _Inflexible_, _Invincible_, and _Cornwall_ weighed and stood out to sea in the order named, and overtook the _Kent_ and the _Glasgow_, which had gone out and joined her a few minutes earlier. The German ships were now in full sight to the south-east--hull down, and doing the "_Goeben_ glide" for all they were worth. In the British ships the stokers were working furiously, the smoke belching in thick volumes from the funnels; and, with every man at his post, their decks flooded with water as a preventive against fire, and hoses ready, the vessels gradually gathered way.

At 10.25 the big ships were making 23 knots, and gradually drew ahead of their consorts. The _Invincible_ led, the _Inflexible_ followed at some little distance on her starboard quarter. The _Glasgow_--all on board burning with eagerness to avenge their late squadron-mates--was ordered to keep at 2 miles distance from the flagship. It was a fine, clear, bright day, comparatively warm for those lat.i.tudes, and it was easy to keep the enemy in sight.

Shortly before one o'clock the two battle-cruisers opened fire with their big guns, presently concentrating on the light cruiser _Leipzig_.

She was not hit, but the big shots crept closer and closer, till after about a quarter of an hour she turned away to the south-west, followed by the _Dresden_ and _Nurnberg_. At the same time the remaining German ships, the two big armoured cruisers, turned slightly to port and began to return the fire of our battle-cruisers. Thenceforward the fighting resolved itself into two battles, one between the big ships, the other between the smaller cruisers.

As soon as the German light cruisers turned off to their starboard hand the _Kent_, _Glasgow_, and _Cornwall_ started after them in accordance with the orders they had received from Admiral St.u.r.dee. The _Bristol_ had previously signalled that three more Germans, looking like colliers or transports, had appeared off the Falklands, and, having received orders to take the armed auxiliary cruiser _Macedonia_ with her and destroy them, had proceeded to chase them to the westward. The strangers turned out to be two and not three ships, the _Baden_ and _St. Isabel_.

Both were captured and sunk after the removal of their crews.

Meanwhile the _Invincible_ and _Inflexible_ were pressing closer and closer on the _Scharnhorst_ and _Gneisenau_. "Suddenly we altered course", wrote a midshipman on board the _Invincible_ to his father,[96]

"and made for the enemy. I had not noticed we were closing, and when their first salvo went off I was still on the top of the turret. I could see all the sh.e.l.ls coming at us, and I felt they were all coming straight at me. However, they all missed except one, which hit the side of the ship near the ward-room, and made a great green flash, and sent splinters flying all round. I hopped below armour quickly and started working again. We were nearing the _Scharnhorst_ and began firing for all we were worth. We hit again and again. First our left gun sent her big crane spinning over the side. Then our right gun blew her funnel to atoms, and then another shot from the left gun sent her bridge and part of the forecastle sky-high.

"We were not escaping free, however. Shots were hitting us repeatedly, and the spray from the splashes of their sh.e.l.ls was hiding the _Scharnhorst_ from us. Suddenly a great livid flame rushed through the gun-ports, and splinters flew all round, and we felt the whole 150 or 200 tons of the turret going up in the air. We thought we were going over the side and would get drowned like rats in a trap. However, we came down again with a crash that shook the turret dreadfully, and continued firing as hard as ever. Nothing in the turret was out of order at all. The range continued to come down, and the whistles of the sh.e.l.ls that flew over us grew into a regular shriek. Down came the range, 11,000, 10,000, 9000, 8800 yards. We were hitting the _Scharnhorst_ nearly every time. One beauty from our right gun got one of their turrets fair and square and sent it whizzing over the side." By 3.30 the _Scharnhorst_ was in a bad way. She was on fire, smoke and steam poured out of her in many places, and when a sh.e.l.l would knock a big hole in her side a dull furnace-like glow was seen within. Several of her guns were out of action and she now turned partially to starboard, apparently with the idea of getting her starboard guns to bear.

Just after four o'clock she was observed to give a heavy roll to port.

She slowly listed farther and farther over, till she lay on her beam-ends, and at 4.17 disappeared below the waves in a dense cloud of smoke and steam. The _Gneisenau_, pa.s.sing on the far side of the ma.s.s of scattered debris marking the grave of her consort, still spat out defiance from her guns. But her hours were numbered, and everyone on board must have known that it was only a matter of minutes before her two huge opponents settled accounts with her. She put up a first-rate fight for nearly two hours longer. She ranged her guns well and hit her adversaries again and again. But each of them was much more than her match, and their great 850-pound projectiles got her time after time.

"5.10. Hit, hit!" wrote one of the _Gneisenau's_ officers in a pocket diary.[97] "5.12. Hit! 5.14. Hit, hit, hit! again! 5.20. After-turret gone. 5.40. Hit, hit! On fire everywhere. 5.41. Hit, hit! burning everywhere and sinking. 5.45. Hit! men dying everywhere. 5.46. Hit, hit!" The ship must have been an inferno. At last she could only fire a single gun at intervals, and at 5.40 the _Invincible_, _Inflexible_, and _Carnarvon_ closed in on the stricken leviathan and the "cease fire" was sounded. At six o'clock she turned slowly, slowly, over to port till only her rounded side was visible lying in the water like a great whale, with those of her crew who survived walking and crawling over it. Then, suddenly, down she went amid a swirl of waters, leaving those of her crew who were not sucked down with her struggling amid the waves. During the fighting the weather had changed for the worse, the sea had begun to rise, and now a cold drizzle was falling.

"Out boats," was the order on board the British ships, and no pains were spared to rescue their late enemies. Some of them had their heads quite turned and tried to kill their rescuers, or jumped into the sea again and drowned themselves. "One officer tried to shoot us with an automatic pistol, but it was wrenched from his hand and we escaped," wrote the midshipman before quoted. It is thought that before she sank 600 of the _Gneisenau's_ ship's company had been killed or wounded. The British seamen, working indefatigably, were only able to save less than 200, fourteen of whom subsequently died from the effects of cold and exposure.

We must now return to the other running fight which had been proceeding between the smaller ships on both sides. The Germans had no notion of fighting if they could avoid it, and seem to have gone off "helter-skelter" without a.s.suming any definite formation. The _Glasgow_ was our fastest cruiser and was ordered to head off the _Nurnberg_ and _Leipzig_. As for the _Dresden_, she seems to have got a very long start from the first and was never overtaken. The _Glasgow_ opened fire on the _Leipzig_ and _Nurnberg_ with her 6-inch guns about three o'clock, and succeeded in making them alter course. The former turned to meet the _Glasgow_, while the latter was obliged to turn in a direction which rendered it easier for the _Kent_ to come up with her. The _Kent_, an older and slower ship than the _Nurnberg_, made a record spurt and succeeded in getting within range of the German. She had but little coal on board. "The old _Kent_ set off and her engines worked up to 22 knots--more than she had ever done on her trials. Then the word was pa.s.sed that there was hardly any coal left. 'Well,' said the captain, 'have a go at the boats.' So they broke up all the boats, smeared them with oil, and put them in the furnaces. Then in went all the armchairs from the ward-room and the chests from the officers' cabins. They next burnt the ladders and all. Every bit of wood was sent to the stokehold.

The result was that the _Kent's_ speed became 24 knots."[98] But it was five o'clock before she could get within range and both ships went at it hammer and tongs for an hour, by which time the _Nurnberg_ was evidently on fire. The sea was by now rather choppy and the atmosphere somewhat misty. Just after half-past six the _Nurnberg_, well alight forward, ceased firing. The _Kent_ thereupon ceased fire also and closed in to 3300 yards; but, as the German still kept her colours flying, she once more set her guns to work. Five minutes of this and down fluttered the German ensign, and the _Kent_ set herself to save as many of her late opponents as she could; but she was, of course, handicapped by having burnt her boats, and only twelve could be rescued with the a.s.sistance of the _Cornwall_. It was nearly half-past seven before the _Nurnberg_ took her final plunge.

The _Kent_ was. .h.i.t a considerable number of times and lost four killed and a dozen wounded, nearly all by one sh.e.l.l. She had, moreover, a very narrow escape from destruction, from which she was only saved by the heroism of Sergeant Charles Mayes of the Royal Marines. In the words of the notification awarding him the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal: "A sh.e.l.l burst and ignited some cordite charges in the casemate. Sergeant Mayes picked up a charge of cordite and threw it away. He then got hold of a fire-hose and flooded the compartment, extinguishing the fire in some empty sh.e.l.l-bags which were burning. The extinction of this fire saved a disaster which might have led to the loss of the ship."

While the _Kent_ was disposing of the _Nurnberg_, the _Glasgow_ and afterwards the _Cornwall_ tackled the _Leipzig_. "We continued to fight the _Leipzig_," writes one[99] of the _Glasgows_," and the _Cornwall_ was now coming up to help us, so she hauled off again, and we followed.

We soon got close enough to open fire again, and this time we had begun to make good shooting though it was at a long range. She had then turned slightly towards us, and we began to get her range; but she was altering her course so much that it made it extremely difficult to hit her. We got one sh.e.l.l through our control and the splinters killed one man and injured several others. This was the only sh.e.l.l that did much damage. We were getting much closer now and our sh.e.l.ls were hitting her as her fire slackened, but we had to be careful owing to the enemy throwing mines over the side. As we got closer ... our fire became even more effective, she turned to port and we had to cease fire for a while. Then the other battery had a chance and they made some very good shooting. By this time she had altered course again and this allowed the _Cornwall_ to open fire on her, but it looked to us as if her fire was going very short.

The _Leipzig_ now fired at the _Cornwall_ and we got up fairly close and poured in a heavy fire. She then took fire on her stern, and her mast and funnel went over the side. Then she was smoking amidships and a sh.e.l.l knocked away the upper half of her second funnel. She was now beaten but she refused to answer our signal to surrender, and after a while we opened fire on her again, and, as it was by this time quite dusk, we could see the sh.e.l.ls strike and burst. She was lying quite helpless now and burning fiercely from amidships to the after end. The smoke which came from her in dense clouds, came across us and we could smell the faint burning.

"Then she fired one of her guns, and this was a signal for a fresh outburst from us. We kept steaming round near the burning ship, and then we saw them fire a white rocket. We and the _Cornwall_ then lowered boats and went nearer to the now sinking ship." "When we went right close to", says another eyewitness, "she looked just like a night-watchman's bucket--all holes and fire. She was a ma.s.s of white heat. You would not think an iron ship would blaze like that." To continue to quote the previous narrator: "Our boats had just arrived near the ship, when she rolled gently over and then sank. Our boats picked up ten of them and the _Cornwall's_ four.... Everyone seemed overjoyed to think we had avenged the loss of the _Good Hope_ and _Monmouth_, and especially so later on when we heard that the _Kent_ had sunk the _Nurnberg_!"

The _Glasgow_, which had fought and escaped at Coronel, and partic.i.p.ated in the signal revenge taken upon Von Spee and his squadron off the Falklands, was lucky enough to a.s.sist in the final act of retribution when the _Dresden_, which had got away for a time, was caught and sunk off Juan Fernandez--Robinson Crusoe's island. The _Glasgow_ and _Orama_ came up from the south-west, and presently the _Kent_ appeared hurrying up from the south-east. After the exchange of some shots the _Dresden_ appeared to be on fire and hoisted a very large white flag, while many of her crew jumped overboard and made for her boats, which were in the water at a little distance off. "As soon as it was clear she did not intend to fight again, we lowered boats and sent medical aid, and several of the wounded were brought alongside the ship for treatment."

Eventually the magazine seems to have been blown up--possibly intentionally by her officers, as just previously the German ensign was re-hoisted, and she sank with it and the white flag of surrender both flying.

With the sinking of the _Dresden_ the German Navy disappeared from the ocean. Not a man-of-war of German nationality floated in the "Seven Seas", and only in the security of their own fortified harbours and in the mine-defended area of the Baltic dared the "black, white, and red flag" show itself.

FOOTNOTES:

[94] Lance-Sergeant H. Blanchard, R.M.L.I., in _The Globe and Laurel_.

[95] Captain Luce of the _Glasgow_ in his official report.

[96] Mr. Esmonde, published in _Penny Pictorial Magazine_.

[97] Quoted by Mr. Esmonde in his letter.

[98] Mr. Esmonde's letter.

[99] Lance-Sergeant H. Blanchard.

CHAPTER XX

German Raids and their Signal Punishment

"I saw a mast abaft the light In the tail of the offsh.o.r.e breeze, A beacon flared on Dover Head, A lean hull slipped the quays; And out of the mist beyond the Fore, h.e.l.l howled across the seas.

"Sudden and terrible, in one night, A fleet had sprung to grips; Nor' and nor'-east the signal sped To the scattered scouts and the ships; And racking the Channel fog the war Roared in apocalypse."

LEWIS HASTINGS in the _Navy_.

EARLY in November, 1914, a German squadron of considerable force made what the Germans proudly termed a "hussar stroke", a number of big ships approaching the English coast, driving off the _Halcyon_, an antiquated gunboat, and firing a few futile shots at long range at Yarmouth.

Suddenly they turned tail and made off. They strewed mines behind them, one of which blew up the submarine D5; but the so-called raid was a case of "much cry, little wool", and finally ended by the _Yorck_, a very big cruiser, running into a German mine defending the entrance to the Jahde and being blown up with great loss of life.

On the 23rd November a patrol vessel rammed the German submarine U 18 off the north coast of Scotland. She was badly damaged and shortly afterwards foundered. Five days later the navy suffered a severe loss in the blowing up of the pre-Dreadnought battleship _Bulwark_ as she lay at her buoy off Sheerness. The cause of this catastrophe was, of course, impossible to ascertain with any certainty, as the ship was sunk and destroyed with almost every soul on board.

Encouraged by what they seem to have considered the success of their vaunted "hussar stroke" at Yarmouth, the Germans thought they might as well have another. This time their raid resulted in the deaths of a large number of civilians, men, women, and children, at East and West Hartlepool, Whitby, and Scarborough, upon which undefended places they opened fire with their heavy artillery. Another "famous victory!" To make it look more like an operation of war, and to excuse themselves to neutrals, they tried to make out that these towns were fortified positions. It is not very likely that anyone believed them, since these places are well known to be nothing of the kind.

As a matter of fact, it was a carefully-planned affair. "Practically the whole fast-cruiser force of the German Navy, including some great ships vital to their fleet and utterly irreplaceable," wrote Mr. Winston Churchill to the Mayor of Scarborough, "has been risked for the pa.s.sing pleasure of killing as many English people as possible, irrespective of s.e.x, age, or condition, in the limited time available to this military and political folly. They were impelled by the violence of feelings which could find no other vent."

There is little doubt that the First Lord's diagnosis of the cause of the raid was absolutely correct, though it was perhaps more generally considered that it had the ulterior motive of "frightening" the British nation. So far from doing anything of the kind, it produced a perfect rush to enlist. Men wanted to take a personal hand in the payment due for such violence. The few British destroyers and patrolling vessels that were encountered opened fire on the big German leviathans, but were naturally in no position to put up anything of a fight against such overwhelming odds. That the Germans were unable to sink them goes to prove that they were in too great a hurry to fire carefully, as all they wanted to do was to escape, for, to quote the official announcement, "on being sighted by British vessels the Germans retired at full speed, and, favoured by the mist, succeeded in making good their escape". What a pity that mist intervened! But it merely postponed the evil day for the raiders after all.

Our men-of-war about this time set to work to give the German positions along the Belgian coast another shaking up, and the year finished by a brilliantly executed naval air raid on Cuxhaven and the German war-ships lying in the Elbe, in the process of which their escorting flotilla had a somewhat unique sc.r.a.p with German submarines and Zeppelins, an account of which will be found in a later chapter.

The year 1915 opened badly for us with the loss of the _Formidable_--a sister-ship to the _Bulwark_--which was torpedoed, it is supposed, by a German submarine well down the Channel. At two o'clock in the morning there was a heavy explosion, and the ship began to settle down to starboard. There was no panic, the boats were got out, and some were already in the water when there was a second explosion and a ma.s.s of debris was shot into the air. The sea was rough, and the survivors, who numbered less than a hundred, endured severe hardships. Some were rescued by a Brixham trawler, and others managed to row ash.o.r.e at Lyme Regis. "The discipline was splendid," said a bluejacket survivor.[100]

"The last that I saw of Captain Loxley"--who was in command of the ship--"was that he was on the bridge calmly smoking a cigarette.

Lieutenant Simmonds superintended the launching of the boats, and as he got the last away I heard the Captain say: 'You have done well, Simmonds'. The stokers must have done magnificently, as they drew all the fires, and, steam being shut off, there was no boiler explosion when the _Formidable_ sank.