Q Ships and Their Story 37

Q Ships and Their Story 37

Q-sailing-ship _Result_. Having commissioned the new ship, Lieutenant

Mack then took her from Lowestoft to the secluded area of the Wash in

order to practise gunnery and the ‘panic’ party arrangements. Months

passed, but on February 22 something of interest happened, for some

distance below the Vigten Islands a couple of steamers were sighted,

so course was then altered to cut off the one that was bound to the

southward. When 1,000 yards away the latter hoisted German colours,

so _Tay and Tyne_ (alias _Cheriton_ and _Dundreary_) hoisted the

international signal ‘M.N.’ to stop immediately. This ship was the

_Dusseldorf_, a nine-year-old, typical German flush-decked tramp

of 1,200 tons, with 1,700 tons of magnetic ore on board. As she

disregarded the signal, a shell was fired across her bows, and this

caused her to stop and hoist the answering pennant. Lieutenant Mack

then steamed round the stern, keeping her covered all the time with his

gun, and now took up station inshore of the German.

 

_Dusseldorf_ had been completely taken by surprise, and never supposed

that this little steamer could possibly be a trap-ship. _Tay and

Tyne_ lowered a boat containing several of the British crew, under

Lieutenant Muhlhauser, armed with revolvers and rifles, and this guard

then boarded the enemy, on board whom were found a couple of Norwegian

Customs House officials and two Norse pilots. Lieutenant Muhlhauser

then ordered the German captain to muster his crew, which he promptly

did, and now the terrified crew were given five minutes to collect

their clothes. The captain handed over the ship’s papers and protested

that the ship was in territorial waters. Eleven Germans and the four

Norwegians were then transferred to the Q-ship, who landed the four

Norwegians in the _Dusseldorf’s_ boat at Sves Fjord, and this boat

they were allowed to keep. The British boarding party had consisted of

a dozen men, but Lieutenant Muhlhauser sent three back to the Q-ship,

and retained three German stokers and the two German engineers in order

to get the prize back to England, these five men working under the

supervision of one of the _Tay and Tyne’s_ crew.

 

Having received orders to proceed, Lieutenant Muhlhauser then began to

take the _Dusseldorf_ across the North Sea. I am indebted to him for

having allowed me to see his private diary of this voyage, and I think

it well illustrates the unexpected and surprising difficulties with

which Q-ship officers so frequently found themselves confronted. Having

parted company with the _Tay and Tyne_, _Dusseldorf’s_ new captain

proceeded to look for navigational facilities, but in this respect she

was amazingly ill-found. The only chart available showed just a small

portion of the North Sea, and there was no sextant in the ship. This

was a delightful predicament, for with all her magnetic ore it could

be taken for certain that the compass would have serious deviation,

and, having regard to the number of minefields in the North Sea and the

physical dangers of the east coast of Scotland, it was a gloomy prelude

to crossing from one side to the other.

 

Having been round the ship, it was now possible to ascertain her

character. She was not a thing of beauty, there was no electric light,

the engine-room was in a neglected condition, and round it were the

engineers’ cabins, the skipper and mate being berthed in a deckhouse

under the bridge. However, as the prize dipped to the North Sea swell

it was a joy to realize that all the hundreds of tons of ore would

not reach Germany. At this late stage of the war she was very short

of this commodity, and the loss to her would be felt. The _Tay and

Tyne_ had certainly made a most useful capture. Fortunately there was

found plenty of food in _Dusseldorf_, and enough coal for about three

weeks, so if only a few days’ fine, clear weather could be ensured,

the ship would soon be across and anchored in a British harbour. That,

of course, was always supposing there was no encountering of mines or

torpedoes.

 

By dusk of the first day the Halten Lighthouse (Lat. 64.10 N., Long.

9.25 E.) was made out, and then the night set in. For some time the

glass had been falling, and before the morning it was blowing a gale

of wind with a heavy sea. Loaded with such a cargo _Dusseldorf_ made

very heavy weather, and was like a half-tide rock most of the time,

and during the next day made only 30 miles in twenty-four hours!

Strictly speaking, this is not the North Sea but the Atlantic Ocean,

and February is as bad a month as you could choose to be off this

Norwegian coast in a ship that could make good only a mile an hour.

By the afternoon of the twenty-fourth the Romsdal Islands had been

sighted, and then, fearing lest the enemy might have received news of

the capture and sent out some of his light forces, the ship was kept

well out from the shore. The Germans should never get this ore, and

arrangements were made to sink her rather than give her up.

 

With no chart, a doubtful compass, and so few appliances, was there

ever an Atlantic voyage made under more casual circumstances? Bearings

were taken of the Pole Star and Sirius in order to get a check on the

compass, and the ship proceeded roughly on a W.S.W. course. During

the twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth it blew a westerly gale, and the

seas crashed over her without mercy. Owing to the cargo being heavy

and stowed low, the _Dusseldorf_ displayed a quick, lively roll, and

already had broken down twice, when for a third time on the evening of

the twenty-sixth she again stopped. She was now four days out, and the

captain was a little anxious as to his position, but it was impossible

to ascertain it. A cast of the lead was taken and bottom was found at

thirty fathoms. From this it was assumed that they were now somewhere

near the Outer Skerries (East of the Shetlands); and inasmuch as it

was believed there was a German minefield, laid this year, not far

away, anxiety was in nowise lessened. As soon as the repairs had been

effected, course was altered to south-east for 16 miles, then south

for the same distance, and north-west in the hope of making the land.

This was done, but no land appeared, and it was blowing a gale from

the north-west. Whether the ship was now in the North Sea or whether

she had overshot the Shetlands and got the other side of Scotland, who

could say? Neither the error of the compass nor the error of the log

could be known. It was now the twenty-seventh, and they might be north,

south, east, or west of the Shetlands, but, on the whole, Lieutenant

Muhlhauser believed he was in the North Sea, so decided to run south

until well clear of the Moray Firth minefields, and then south-west

until the land was picked up.

 

The twenty-eighth of February passed without land being sighted,

and there was always the horrible possibility that suddenly the ship

might strike the shore in the darkness. It was a long-drawn-out period

of suspense, aggravated by bad weather and the presence of mines and

submarines. But as spring follows winter and dawn comes after night,

so at length there came relief. At six in the morning of the first of

March a light was picked up on the starboard bow, which, on consulting

a nautical almanack, was identified as the Bell Rock (east of the Tay).

Continuing further south, two trawlers and an armed yacht were sighted

off May Island, so a signal was sent through the yacht to Admiral

Startin at Granton reporting the arrival of a prize captured by _Tay

and Tyne_, and, in due course, having steamed up the Firth of Forth,

_Dusseldorf_ at last came to anchor and reported herself. It had been a

plucky voyage made under the worst conditions, and many an officer has

been decorated for an achievement less than this.

 

As for _Tay and Tyne_, she, too, had passed through a trying period.

After landing the Norwegian pilots and Customs House officials in Sves

Fjord she had steamed out to sea and made bad weather of the gale,

water even pouring into the engine-room; but she had been saved from

foundering by taking shelter in a Norwegian fjord, and next day cruised

about the coast looking for more ore ships, but had no further luck, so

on February 25 shaped a course for Lerwick, where she duly arrived, and

the German prisoners were taken out of the fo’c’sle and handed over to

the naval authorities.

 

In the following month _Tay and Tyne_, accompanied by another Q-ship

named the _Glendale_, was again off the Norwegian coast on the look-out

for ore ships, just as in Elizabethan days our ancestral seamen were

in a western sea looking out for the Spanish ships with their rich

cargoes. _Glendale_ (alias _Speedwell II._ and Q 23) was a disguised

trawler of 273 tons belonging to Granton, and armed with a couple of

12-pounders, a 6-pounder, and two torpedoes. On the twenty-first of

March, _Glendale_ was off the Oxnaes Lighthouse when she captured the

German S.S. _Valeria_ with 2,200 tons of ore. In vile weather these

three ships then started to cross to Lerwick, but, after they had got

part of the way across, _Valeria’s_ small supply of coal gave out,

so on the twenty-third she had to be abandoned and then sunk by the

shelling from the two Q-ships, the crew having been previously taken

off by boats, while both Q-ships poured oil on to the sea. Although

_Valeria_ never reached a British port this was most useful work; for

not only was the ore prevented from reaching Germany, but they were

deprived of a brand-new 1,000-ton ship. Her captain, who, together with

the rest of the crew, was brought into Lerwick, had only just left the

German Navy, and this was his first trip. Incidents such as these show

what excellent service can be rendered in naval warfare irrespective

of the size of ships and of adverse circumstances, provided only that

the officers have zeal and determination. The risks run by these two

small ships were very great when we consider the manner in which our

Scandinavian convoys had been cut up in spite of destroyer protection.

Conversely, seeing how necessary for the prosecution of the war these

supplies of ore were to Germany, is it not a little surprising that she

did not station a submarine off the Norwegian coast to act as escort,

submerged, and then torpedo the _Tay and Tyne_ as soon as she began to

close the ore ship? One of her smaller submarines could surely have

been spared for such an undertaking, and it would have been, from

their point of view, more than worth while.

 

Finally, we have to relate the fight of another small coasting steamer

transformed into a Q-ship. This was the _Stockforce_ (alias _Charyce_),

which had been requisitioned at Cardiff at the beginning of 1918, and

then armed with a couple of 4-inch guns, a 12-pounder, and a 3-pounder.

Her captain was Lieutenant Harold Auten, D.S.C., R.N.R., who had had

a great deal of experience in Q-ships under Admiral Bayly, and had

recently commanded the Q-ship _Heather_. On the thirtieth of July,

1918, _Stockforce_ was about 25 miles south-west of the Start, steaming

along a westerly course at 7-1/2 knots, the time being just before five

in the afternoon, when the track of a torpedo was seen on the starboard

beam coming straight on for the ship. The crew were sent to their

stations, the helm was put hard aport and engines full speed astern,

in the hope of avoiding the torpedo; but it was too late. The ship

was struck on the starboard side abreast of No. 1. hatch, putting the

forward gun out of action, entirely wrecking the fore part of the ship,

including the bridge, and wounding three ratings and an officer.

 

As soon as the torpedo had exploded there came a tremendous shower

of timber, which had been packed in the hold for flotation purposes,