Q Ships and Their Story 13

Q Ships and Their Story 13

‘It is all very well serving as a target at 1,000 yards, but it is an

experience which must not be too long continued in case a lucky shot

disables one. In the present case, moreover, the wind and sea were

rapidly increasing, and we were leaving the boat in spite of all our

efforts to stop. The submarine seemed quite determined not to come any

nearer, and the C.O. decided that the moment had come for our side to

begin. Just before this one of the bulwarks, luckily on the side away

from the sub., had fallen down, and let a deluge of water on to the

decks, but this did not affect things as far as we know.

 

‘At the word, down fell the bulwarks, round came the guns, and up

went the White Ensign. Only the after 12-pounder gun would bear. The

first shell struck the submarine at the junction of the conning-tower

and deck forward. The 6-pounder also fired one shell, and hit the

conning-tower. The second shell from the big gun burst short. By the

time the smoke had cleared away the submarine had disappeared. Had we

sunk her or had she dipped? This is the point which is exercising our

minds. The C.O. thinks the evidence of sinking her is not conclusive,

but most of us think she has gone down for ever.

 

‘We then made for the boat, which was still labouring after us, and got

it hooked on and hoisted. There was quite a decent-sized sea, and the

hoisting process was not very pleasant for those left in to hook on,

not to mention that they got wet from the exhaust.

 

‘At the time the sub. was firing, one of the officers or crew was

standing on the conning-tower rails, probably spotting for the

gunners. He was there when the first shell struck, but was not noticed

afterwards. Very likely he had fallen into the tower, but he may have

fallen into the water.

 

‘We certainly gave them a lesson in gunnery, two hits out of three

shots. Compare that with their performance. Moreover, our guns had to

be swung into position, while theirs was already pointed.

 

‘Having picked up the boat, we made for the spot where the sub. had

disappeared, but could not be sure that we had reached it. Anyway, we

saw no traces of it. We did not spend much time in searching, but put

the ship back on her course. The wind and sea were by this time strong

and heavy, and after running out for half an hour we turned and headed

west, with the idea of being near shelter if a north-east gale, which

I had predicted, came along. As a matter of fact it did not, and my

reputation as a weather-prophet is tarnished. Our alteration of course

was made solely from weather conditions, but it must have seemed very

suspicious to a second submarine which now arrived on the scene, and

which had probably been chasing us without our knowing it. Instead of

it chasing us, it suddenly found us coming to meet it, and must have

been puzzled. By way of clearing the air it fired a torpedo from a

distance of about 2,000 yards, and missed us by about 200 yards—a bad

effort. It then fired three shells at us, which also went wide. There

is no doubt that this was another, and smaller, submarine from the

first, but we did not grasp this at first, and so without more ado we

let drive at it, but unluckily the gun missed fire twice. Fleet then

opened the breech, at some risk to himself, and drew out the cartridge

and threw it away. But this wasted time, and when he did fire the shell

went short. The submarine had taken advantage of the pause to get ready

to dive, and did not wait for another shot, but went under as soon as

we fired.

 

‘It was no use waiting about, as we should very likely have been

torpedoed, so we went on towards the land.

 

‘And so ended what the skipper calls the “Battle of the Silver Pit,”

from the name of the fishing ground where it took place. As far as

it went it was satisfactory, but we should like to be sure that we

sank the first. The two engagements took about two hours. Possibly by

waiting we might have done better, but, on the other hand, we might

have done worse.’

 

It was eventually known that the first submarine was UC 45, who paid

the _Result_ the compliment of describing this ship’s gunfire as

well-controlled. She got back safely to Germany. For the manner in

which the fighting had been conducted, Lieutenant Mack and the skipper

were both mentioned in despatches.

 

After the return to Lowestoft, _Result_ was altered in appearance and

was sent off to the area where this encounter had taken place. This

time she used Swedish colours, and called herself the _Dag_. On this

voyage, whilst in the vicinity north of the North Hinder Bank, on April

4, about 4 a.m., a submarine was seen on the port bow, but disappeared.

It was so big that at first it resembled a steamer or destroyer.

Presently a periscope was seen about 4 points on the bow, resembling

a topmast, as it had a rake. The lower portion was about 6 inches in

diameter, and a narrower stem protruded from this, terminating in a

ball, and whilst officers and crew watched it, wondering whether it was

the mast of a wreck or not, it slowly dipped and vanished. This was

the submarine in the act of taking a photograph. She then retired to a

distance convenient for shelling. There was a light westerly breeze,

and the enemy now bobbed up at intervals all round the _Dag_, examining

her very carefully. Lieutenant Muhlhauser writes of this incident:

 

‘Then followed a pause of nearly half an hour without our seeing

anything of him. The cook was sent to the galley to get on with

breakfast and we started the engine. It is hardly necessary to say that

as it was particularly wanted it ran very badly, and, indeed, could

hardly be kept going at all. Suddenly a shell burst near us, followed

by another and another. We could not at first tell the direction from

which they came, and thought it was from astern, but found that the

submarine had cunningly moved away towards the sun, and had emerged in

the mist behind the path of the sun, where he was practically invisible

from our ship, while we were lit up and must have offered a splendid

target with our white hull and sails. His shooting was very good,

and none of the shells missed us by much. He fired rapidly, and was

probably using a 4·1-inch semi-automatic gun. The shells all burst on

striking the water, and the explosions had a vicious sound. They seemed

to come at a terrific speed, suggesting a high-velocity gun. The C.O.

calmly walked the deck, the skipper took the wheel, and I sat at the

top of the cabin hatchway and noted the times and numbers of shells

fired and anything else of interest. The rest of the crew were at their

stations, but keeping below the bulwarks, except those who launched the

boat and let it tow astern. The eleventh shell struck us just above

the water-line, and soused us all with spray which flew up above the

peak of the mainsail. It tore a hole in the side and burst in the sand

ballast, reducing the skipper’s cabin to matchwood, and destroying the

wireless instrument. It also knocked down the sides of the magazine and

set fire to the wood, starting some of the rockets smouldering. It also

smashed up the patent fire extinguishers, and possibly the fumes from

these prevented the fire from spreading. Anyway, it was out when we

had time to see what was happening.

 

‘In the meantime we could not afford to be hit again, and the C.O.

gave the word to open fire. Down went the bulwarks and round swung the

guns, but where was the target? Hidden in the mist behind the sun’s

path it was invisible to the gun-layers looking through telescopes,

and they were obliged to fire into the gloom at a venture. The poor

little 6-pounder was quite outranged, and it is doubtful if the shells

went more than two-thirds of the way. The other guns had sufficient

range, but it was impossible to judge the distance or observe the fall

of the shots. However, they made a glorious and cheering noise, and

Fritz dived as soon as he could. There is not the least reason for

thinking that we hit him. The skipper, deceived by the low freeboard

revealed when the bulwarks were down, at this stage quickly announced

the conviction that she was sinking. Smoke was also pouring out of the

hatches, and we had two wounded men to see to: Ryder, who was in the

magazine and who was hit in the arm, sustaining a compound fracture,

and Morris, also in the magazine, bruised in the back and suffering

from shock. We were not, therefore, in a position to continue the

battle, and things looked a bit blue. Fritz might be expected to be

along in a few minutes submerged, and he would have little difficulty

in torpedoing us, as we were very nearly a stationary target. We had

no means of warding him off except by a depth charge. That might

inconvenience him, but it would hardly delay him long, and he could

then either torpedo us or retire out of range of our guns and pound us

to pieces, as his gun had a range of about 5,000 yards more than ours.

Sure enough he was soon after us, as we crawled along at our 4-knot

gait, and raised his periscope right astern about 200 yards off.

 

‘We then slung over a depth charge, and had just got our 10-feet

clearance when it went off, and made quite a creditable stir for a

little ‘un. Fritz promptly disappeared to think things over, and we

were relieved of the sight of the sinister-looking periscope. But we

had only delayed things a little. He would soon recover and adopt fresh

tactics. Still, for ten minutes we should have peace to attend to our

wounded and the damage. The C.O. supervised the bandaging of Ryder, who

had been lying on deck since he had been drawn out of the magazine.

I had passed him—passed over him, in fact—once or twice in going

forward, and thought he was dead, as he lay so still. Then the hole

in the side wanted attention, and also the fire below. Just then the

look-outs reported the _Halcyon_[2] and two P-boats ahead coming our

way. We were extremely glad to hear them shout out, as it meant all the

difference between being sunk and not being sunk. When the skipper had

called out “She is sinking, sir,” I thought of the number our little

boat would hold, and the number of the crew, and had reflected that

my number was up. The arrival of the _Halcyon_ and her attendants put

a different complexion on things, and while efforts were being made

by guns to attract their attention, I set about plugging our hole and

trying to find the fire.

 

‘Stringer warned me that he had tried to get below, but had found the

fumes too much. By the time I got there they must have cleared, as I

did not find them too bad. The place was full of smoke, but though

I pulled things about blindly, as it was impossible to see anything,

I could not see any glow to indicate a fire. Ultimately I did see a

light, but on making for it I found it was Dawes and an electric light.

He had entered from the mess-deck. There appearing to be no immediate

danger from fire, I crawled round to the shot-hole and found water

coming in through rivet holes. The main hole had been plugged from the

outside by two coal-bags and a shot-hole plug. I got tools and cut up

some wood, while Wreford cut up a coal-bag into 6-inch squares. These

Dawes and I hammered home, and made her fairly tight.

 

‘Meanwhile great efforts were being made to communicate with the