Part 2 (2/2)
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 a.s.sumed 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 s.h.i.+p 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 amids.h.i.+ps 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 flags.h.i.+p 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 flags.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps were not to be tempted into giving action, and withdrew to their base before our s.h.i.+ps 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 sh.o.r.e 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 pa.s.sed 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 flags.h.i.+p was saved, but only to be mined and sunk within sight of her base a few weeks later.
Our s.h.i.+ps, 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 s.h.i.+p was being slowly towed through enemy waters. Our crippled s.h.i.+ps of the Harwich Force were never allowed to fall into the enemy's hands. Many are the stories of the saving of our s.h.i.+ps in the North Sea during the war.
Let us take, for example, the case of the _Landrail_. In May 1915, off Bork.u.m, 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 ap.r.o.n. She was towed from Bork.u.m 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 rea.s.semble 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 sh.o.r.e 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 a.s.sist 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 hara.s.sing 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 inc.u.mbent 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 s.h.i.+pyards, and now there is no lack of them.
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