The Battle of the Falkland Islands 6

The Battle of the Falkland Islands 6

The Admiralty are extraordinarily good about dispatching mails to our

ships, but sudden and unexpected movements often make it impossible

to receive them with any regularity. When war broke out everyone

wondered how their folk at home would manage, whether money and food

would be easily obtainable. In our own case we were moved from our

original sphere of operations, and did not get our first mail till

October 19th, over eleven weeks after leaving England, and many

other ships may have fared even worse. Again, our Christmas mail of

1914 was not received till six months afterwards, having followed

us to the Falkland Islands, then back home, out again round the

Cape of Good Hope, finally arriving at the Dardanelles. On this

occasion one of the men had a pound of mutton and a plum pudding

sent him by his wife; it can easily be imagined with what delight he

welcomed these delicacies, which had been through the tropics several

times, as did those others whose parcels were anywhere near his in

the mail bag. It may appear a paltry thing to those who get their

daily post regularly, but the arrival of a mail at sea is a very

real joy, even to those who get but few letters. The newspapers are

eagerly devoured, and events, whose bare occurrence may have only

become known through meagre wireless communiqués, are at length made

comprehensible.

 

Darkening ship at sunset is uncomfortable, more particularly in the

tropics, when the heat on the messdecks becomes unbearable from lack

of air. However, this is now much improved by supplying wind-scoops

for the scuttles, fitted with baffles to prevent the light from

showing outboard. Everyone sleeps on deck who can, risking the

pleasures of being trodden upon in the dark, or of being drenched by

a sudden tropical shower, when the scrum of men hastily snatching

up their hammocks and running for the hatches equals that of any

crowd at a football match. On moonless nights little diversions are

constantly occurring. A certain officer, perfectly sober, on one

occasion walked over the edge of the boat-deck into space, and then

was surprised to find that he was hurt.

 

The hardships and anxieties of the life are probably overrated by

people ashore. The very routine helps to make the sailor accustomed

to the strange and unnatural conditions, nearly all of which have

their humorous side. As is the way of the world, we on the coast of

South America all envied those in the Grand Fleet at this time, in

modern ships fitted with refrigerating rooms and plenty of good fresh

food; and they, no doubt, willingly would have changed places with

us, being sick to death of the uneventful life, cold, rough weather,

and constant submarine strain from which we were fortunately immune.

Events took such a shape a few months later that those of us who were

fortunate enough to be in the battle of the Falkland Islands would

not have been elsewhere for all the world.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER V

 

THE SINKING OF THE "CAP TRAFALGAR"

 

"When, with a roar that seemed to buffet the heavens

And rip the heart of the sea out, one red flame

Blackened with fragments, the great galleon burst

Asunder! All the startled waves were strewn

With wreckage; and Drake laughed: 'My lads, we have diced

With death to-day, and won!'"

 

--ALFRED NOYES (_Drake_).

 

 

It has already been mentioned that the _Carmania_ was ordered to

search the Brazilian island of Trinidad (not to be confused with the

British Island of the same name), which lies in the South Atlantic

about 600 miles to the eastward of South America, and in about the

same latitude as Rio de Janeiro. It was uninhabited at this time, and

seemed a likely place for the Germans to use as a temporary coaling

base; they have never had any compunction about breaking the laws of

neutrality if it suited their purpose.

 

The following narrative is taken from the official report,

supplemented by an account written by the author two days after

the action from a description given him by the officers of H.M.S.

_Carmania_.

 

Land was sighted on the morning of September 14th, 1914. A moderate

breeze was blowing from the north-east, but it was a lovely day, with

a clear sky and the sun shining. Shortly after 11 A.M. the masts of a

vessel were observed, and on approaching nearer the _Carmania_ made

out three steamers, apparently at anchor in a small bay that lies to

the south-west of the island. One of these was a large liner, but the

others were clearly colliers and had their derricks topped; they were

probably working when they sighted us, and they immediately separated

and made off in different directions before the whole of their hulls

could be distinguished.

 

The large vessel was apparently a liner about equal in size,[4]

having two funnels which were painted to resemble those of a Union

Castle liner. After running away for a while, the larger steamer,

which turned out to be the _Cap Trafalgar_ (though this was not known

for certain till weeks afterwards), altered course to starboard and

headed more in our direction. She was then steering about south at

what appeared to be full speed, while the _Carmania_ was steaming 16

knots on a sou'-westerly course.

 

There could no longer be any doubt that she meant to fight, and the

duel now ensued that has been so happily described by a gifted naval

writer, the late Fred T. Jane, as "the Battle of the Haystacks."

To my idea, it appears almost a replica of the frigate actions of

bygone days, and will probably go down in history as a parallel to

the engagement fought between the _Chesapeake_ and _Shannon_. For

gallantry, pluck and determination it certainly bears comparison with

many of these actions of the past.

 

About noon she fired a single shot across the enemy's bows at a

range of 8,500 yards, whereupon he immediately opened fire from his

after-gun on the starboard side. This was quickly followed on both

sides by salvoes (all guns firing nearly simultaneously as soon as

their sights came on to the target), so matters at once became lively.

 

Curiously enough, the enemy's first few shots fell short, ricocheting

over, and then, as the range decreased, they went clean over the

hull, in consequence of which our rigging, masts, funnels, derricks,

and ventilators all suffered, though the ship's side near the

waterline--the principal anxiety--was so far intact. Some of the

_Carmania's_ first shots, which were fired at a range of 7,500

yards, were seen to take effect, and she continued to score hits

afterwards with moderate frequency. The port battery was engaging

his starboard guns at this period, so that he was on her port hand,

and a reference to the plan will show that she was ahead on bearing.

The range was rapidly decreasing since they were both on converging

courses, but unfortunately the German ship had the speed of her, for

the Cunarder could only do 16 knots, due largely to a lack of vacuum

in the condensers. As far as could be judged the _Cap Trafalgar_ was

steaming between 17 and 18 knots. (_See_ Diagram, p. 39.)

 

At 4,500 yards, two of our broadsides were seen to hit all along the

waterline. As the range decreased to 4,000 yards the shot from the

enemy's pom-poms (machine guns), fired with great rapidity, began

to fall like hail on and all round the ship; this induced Captain

Grant to alter course away with promptitude, thus opening out

the range and bringing the starboard battery into play. The port

4.7-inch guns--they were all over twenty years old--were by this time

wellnigh red-hot. That the enemy did not apprehend this manœuvre was

demonstrated by his erratic fire at this moment, when the Britisher

was enabled to bring five guns into action to his four through being

able to use both the stern guns. It was now that the German suffered

most heavily, the havoc wrought in such a short time being very

noticeable. He then turned away, which brought the two ships nearly

stern on to one another; two of his steam pipes were cut by shell,

the steam rising into the sky, he was well on fire forward, and had a

list to starboard.

 

[Illustration: (Diagram of action between 'CARMANIA' and 'CAP

TRAFALGAR'.)

 

The Mappa Co. Ltd London

]

 

One of his shells, however, had passed through the captain's cabin

under the fore bridge, and although it did not burst it started a

fire, which rapidly became worse; unhappily no water was available to

put it out, for the fire main was shot through, while the chemical

fire extinguishers proved of little use. All water had to be carried

by hand, but luckily the fire was prevented from spreading over the

ship by a steel bulkhead, together with an ordinary fire-proof swing

door, which was afterwards found to be all charred on one side.

Nevertheless it got a firm hold of the deck above, which broke into

flame, so the fore-bridge had to be abandoned. The ship had now to

be steered from the stern, and all orders had to be shouted down by

megaphone both to the engine rooms and to this new steering position

in the bowels of the ship, which was connected up and in operation in

fifty-seven seconds! To reduce the effect of the fire the vessel was

kept before the wind, which necessitated turning right round again,

so that the fight resolved itself into a chase.

 

The action was continued by the gun-layers, the fire-control position

being untenable due to the fire, so each gun had to be worked and

fired independently under the direction of its own officer. Among

the ammunition supply parties there had been several casualties and

the officers, finding it impossible to "spot" the fall of the shell,

owing to the flashes from the enemy's guns obscuring their view from

so low an elevation, lent a hand in carrying the ammunition from the

hoists to the guns. In these big liners the upper deck, where the

guns are mounted, is approximately 70 feet above the holds, whence

the ammunition has to be hoisted and then carried by hand to the

guns--a particularly arduous task.

 

Crossing, as it were, the enemy was at this time well on the

starboard bow, but firing was continued until the distance was over

9,000 yards, the maximum range of the _Carmania's_ guns. Owing to

his superior speed and a slight divergence between the courses, the

distance was gradually increasing all the time, and at 1.30 he was

out of range. His list had now visibly increased, and his speed began

to diminish, probably