The Harwich Naval Forces Part 6

The above explanation of mine-sweeping, of course, deals with very elementary matter. For during the war this science has made immense progress, and volumes could be written on it. Many are the ingenious contrivances that have been introduced to improve the efficiency of the sweep. In fact, in all our operations, offensive and defensive, below the surface of the sea weird new inventions play an important part. Take, for example, that grimly humorous invention the indicator net, to lay which was one of the duties of the drifters of the Harwich Force. In its early form this was a fine wire net, which, when run into by a submarine travelling below the surface, was dragged from its moorings and remained attached to the enemy, accompanying him whithersoever he went, not impeding his progress, and possibly unnoticed by him, but dooming him to destruction. For attached to this net by a long line was a buoy containing a torch which was lighted automatically when the strain of the tow came on the buoy. So the unconscious enemy travelled on underneath, announcing his presence by the flaming torch which accompanied him overhead, thus enabling the watchful British patrol boats to close in on him and effect his destruction with depth charges. The above is an ideal case, for in practice the operation was by no means always so simple or so successful. But that early type of indicator net has been superseded by a much more deadly invention.

A great deal of useful work was done by the Harwich drifters in evolving the best method of working the indicator net, and their system was eventually adopted as standard by the Admiralty. Great perfection was attained in this work. Thus, on one occasion in 1917 some Harwich drifters sailed to a certain destination in the North Sea, and after a week's work in laying and watching their nets destroyed three "U" boats. The crews received a reward of 3000 from the Admiralty; for 1000 was the prize given for the total destruction of one of these enemy submarines.

The mine-sweeping has been described by those who should know as having been the hardest service in the North Sea during the war. Sir Edward Carson, who inspected the Harwich auxiliary force, in the course of a speech, likened the men employed in the mine-sweeping craft to soldiers in trenches at the front, who were required to go over the top every day. It was indeed arduous and hazardous work. The least of the dangers faced was that from the enemy Zeppelins and aeroplanes which were constantly bombing the vessels--but here, as elsewhere, with little effect; our fishermen took small notice of these overhead foes.

It is indeed remarkable how very little damage was ever done by Zeppelins at sea. On one occasion, it is true, the Zeppelin crews killed a number of their own countrymen--the survivors of the sinking _Blucher_--mistaking them for Englishmen. But our s.h.i.+ps suffered practically nothing from their frequent attacks. Yet the enemy aircraft did their utmost to interfere with the operations of our mine-sweepers and mine-net laying drifters. On one occasion a Zeppelin hovered over a fleet of the latter craft which were lying in wait watching their deadly nets off the s.h.i.+pwash. The Zeppelin dropped about seventeen bombs, some of which fell very close to the vessels, exploding violently and throwing up huge columns of water; but not a single hit was made and no damage was done.

But the mines amid which their duties took them daily were a very real peril. Out of the little Harwich force, twenty-two mine-sweepers were sunk by mines in the course of the war, while many others were mined--some more than once--but were brought safely back to port. The loss of life was heavy. Nearly one-quarter of the officers and men were killed in the course of the war. In the case of the trawlers there was small chance for the men when their vessel was mined under them; but these tough fishermen, whose trade had taught them to face danger from their childhood, carried on cheerily among the minefields through all the years of the war. Many heroic deeds stand to their account.

In times of peace, not few are the wrecks and gallant savings of life on the stormy North Sea. But in war-time, with the far graver peril from enemy mines and s.h.i.+ps added to that of storm or thick weather, many were the disasters and many were the courageous rescues of crews and pa.s.sengers by our mine-sweepers. In the period extending from the date of the establishment of the Harwich base up to December 31, 1917, no fewer than 1065 men, women, and children were picked up and saved from mined vessels by the Harwich mine-sweepers--a total which was much exceeded later. Often these craft hurried to the rescue at fearful risk of being struck themselves by mines of the same group that had brought about the disaster. One hears of trawlers that put out their dinghies in the roughest weather in order to save lives; for example, as when a trawler's dinghy rescued airmen from off the dangerous shoal of the Longsand when a heavy sea was breaking over it.

For the North Sea fisherman, like his brethren in the Navy, is imbued with that chivalry of the sea which makes the British sailor what he is.

And not only lives but s.h.i.+ps with valuable cargoes of food were often saved. For example, there is the notable incident of the saving of the _Berwen_. In the rapidly falling darkness of a winter day, with a strong south-west gale blowing and a heavy sea running, the little wooden drifter _Lloyd George_, manned by ten hardy Scotch fishermen, while patrolling the War-Channel between the s.h.i.+pwash and the Sunk light-vessels, sighted the large merchant steamer _Berwen_, apparently mined and not under control, to the south-westward of the s.h.i.+pwash.

The _Lloyd George_ immediately steamed at full speed to the a.s.sistance of the _Berwen_, only to find that the mined s.h.i.+p had been abandoned by her crew and was rapidly drifting on to a minefield which stretched to leeward of her, where several moored mines could be plainly seen at intervals in the rise and fall of the heavy sea. The skipper of the drifter, realising the danger and the necessity for immediate action, with great skill and wonderful seamans.h.i.+p placed his drifter alongside the _Berwen_ and, having put three members of his crew of ten on board her, pa.s.sed a tow-line and commenced to tow her to the south-west, away from the minefields.

The little drifter, not fitted for towing, having none of the necessary appliances on board, and not having the power to deal with so heavy a tow, could make little, if any, progress in the teeth of the ever-increasing gale; but she held on to the _Berwen_ and fought bravely on throughout the dark night, surrounded by the unknown dangers of mines, and was able at the coming of daylight to hand her charge over safely to the tugs for which she had wirelessed.

The _Berwen_ eventually reached the Thames with only a few hundred tons damaged out of the seven thousand tons of sugar which formed her cargo. One is not surprised to hear that a grateful country omitted to pay any salvage to the seamen who, by their gallant action, had rescued so valuable a cargo, on the ground that the sugar was Government property.

Worthy of note, too, is the good work done by the trawler _Resono_.

On November 17, 1915, when off the Galloper light-vessel, she witnessed the blowing up by a mine of the merchant steamer _Ulrikon_.

She took off all the crew of the lost s.h.i.+p, and no sooner had this rescue been effected than another steamer, the _Athomas_, struck a mine and was badly injured by the explosion. Her crew abandoned her and were picked up. The officer commanding the _Resono_, observing that the _Athomas_ was not in immediate danger of sinking, decided to salvage her. The men composing her own crew refused to go on board of her again, though it was explained to them that they would have to go through the minefield in any case, and that they would be safer in a s.h.i.+p of large tonnage than in a trawler. Therefore the captain of the _Resono_ called for volunteers from his own crew, put them on board the _Athomas_ despite the heavy weather, towed her safely away, and handed her over to the Sheerness Patrol in sheltered waters. The _Resono_, after having accomplished much good work, eventually was blown up by a mine off the Sunk light-vessel on Christmas Day, 1915.

Another well-known trawler was the _Lord Roberts_. During her long career of patrol work in the Harwich area she went to the a.s.sistance of many mined s.h.i.+ps and rescued a very large percentage of their crews. Unfortunately, she was mined and lost in October 1916, with a loss of one officer and eight men. The _Lord Roberts_ had become a familiar and welcome sight to the merchant vessels using the channels off Harwich, and there was sorrow when she was lost. One Trinity House pilot, missing her from her usual patrol ground, wrote a letter to the authorities asking what had become of "our old friend, the _Lord Roberts_."

As I have shown, a large vessel with watertight compartments has a fair chance of surviving the effect of a mine. But with the small vessel it is otherwise, and on her the effect of the explosion of a German mine is indeed terrible. Thus the official message reporting the loss, March 31, 1917, of the drifter _Forward III._, of 89 tons, read, "_Forward III._ mined. No survivors." As far as can be gathered from the circ.u.mstances, the drifter must have struck the mine with her keel dead amids.h.i.+ps, and when the smoke cleared away there was nothing to be seen on the water beyond a few broken pieces of wood. A large section of her wooden keel came down on end, pierced the deck of the drifter _White Lilac_, and remained standing upright, looking, as it was put to me, like "a monument to the gallant men who had gone."

The loss of the trawler _Burnley_ in November 1916 affords another example of the total disappearance of vessel and crew after the striking of a mine. The _Burnley_ was in charge of a subdivision of trawlers carrying out a patrol in the vicinity of the s.h.i.+pwash light-vessel. At the close of the day the senior officer in the _Burnley_, relying on the superior speed of his vessel to overtake the others, ordered the two trawlers under him to proceed to their anchorage in Hollesley Bay. What exactly happened after this will never be known, but it is surmised that the _Burnley_ stopped to investigate something suspicious. The _Holdene_, the senior of the other two trawlers, reached the anchorage as night was setting in, and had just dropped her anchor when a flash was seen on the eastern horizon. This was followed by a dull, heavy explosion, which shook the _Holdene_ from stem to stern. The anchor was immediately weighed and the _Holdene_ steamed at full speed to the scene of the explosion; but, though she cruised about for two hours in the darkness, nothing was to be seen of the _Burnley_ or her crew. On the following day a fresh group of mines was discovered in the vicinity, so it is probable that the _Burnley_ had struck one of this group very soon after the mines had been laid by German submarines.

Among the losses of the Harwich mine-sweepers may be noted that of the paddle steamer _Queen of the North_, which was mined and sunk while engaged in mine-sweeping. Despite the gallant efforts of her consorts, one officer and nineteen men only were saved, seven officers and twenty-two men being lost. Mine-sweeping in the War-Channel, as I have explained, had to be carried out whatever the weather, and in winter the weather conditions often made the work extremely hazardous.

For example, on one occasion a division had swept up eleven enemy mines. Before any of these mines could be sunk by rifle fire a blinding snowstorm swept over the sea, making it impossible for the vessels to distinguish either each other or the drifting mines.

Nevertheless the R.N.R. officer who was in command of the division, by exercise of good judgment, extricated his vessels from the dangerous area, and twenty minutes later, when the weather cleared, he was enabled to destroy all the mines.

One of the many dangers that attend mine-sweeping is caused by the occasional failure of the sweep wire to cut a mine adrift. The mine and its sinker come up the sweep wire when the latter is hove in, at the great risk of causing an explosion under the vessel's stern. Thus, the paddle steamer _Mercury_, while sweeping off the Sunk, brought up three mines and their sinkers in this way. An explosion resulted, which blew her stern off. Fortunately, no lives were lost. She was towed into port and placed in dry dock for repairs. She was an unlucky s.h.i.+p, for on her very first trip after the repairs had been effected she struck another mine while sweeping close to the scene of her former accident. On this occasion her bows were blown away and two lives were lost. Again she was towed back to port and repaired, and she is now once more engaged in mine-sweeping.

There is also a serious danger of a mine fouling a vessel's anchor and coming up with it to explode under the vessel's bows, as is shown in the case of the drifter _Cape Colony_, whose crew experienced a miraculous escape from death. On the evening of January 7, 1917, in company of other drifters, the _Cape Colony_ laid her mine nets under cover of the darkness. She was then told off with another drifter to anchor in the vicinity of the s.h.i.+pwash to work the hydrophones during the night. At daylight on the following morning the signal was given to weigh anchor. The mate of the _Cape Colony_, leaning over the bow to see the cable come in, suddenly saw the horns of a mine, apparently foul of the anchor, on the edge of the water and within a foot of the stem. With great presence of mind he jumped to the capstan and stopped heaving in, but was unable to reverse and lower away. He immediately shouted a warning, ran aft, and jumped into the sea, followed by the rest of the crew. The last man had just got into the water when a heavy swell rolled along, lifted the drifter's bow, and exploded the mine, which blew half the drifter into matchwood. She pitched forward and quickly sank by the head. The crew were rapidly picked up by the boat from the other drifter, none the worse for their adventure.

Mines in their tens of thousands still lie about the North Sea to endanger s.h.i.+pping, and probably it will take a year to clear them. For sweeping up these mines the Admiralty are giving the men a special rate of pay, and only those who volunteer are now employed. The danger incurred is practically negligible when compared with the risk that attended these operations in war-time.

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

Even those querulous and ignorant pessimists who, during the war, used to ask, "What is the Navy doing?" must now know what the Navy has done. Our Navy kept open the sea routes of the world to ourselves and our allies, while wholly closing them to our enemies. Had our politicians permitted it, the blockade by our Navy would have brought the war to an earlier conclusion. The Germans, driven from the surface of the sea, put their trust in their murderous submarine campaign.

Finding that this failed altogether against our Navy, they directed it against the merchant s.h.i.+pping of the world. That attempt too failed.

Our Navy gradually mastered the submarines, until at last, towards the close of the war, the crews of the German "U" boats refused to put to sea. There was no great decisive naval action, for the good reason that the High Sea Fleet would not fight it out with our Grand Fleet, but retired to the shelter of the German minefields whenever it was attacked. In vain inferior forces were sent to tempt the enemy out.

The German raids on the East Coast had no military value, and apparently had frightfulness as their sole object. Their fast s.h.i.+ps used to rush across the North Sea under cover of the fog, bombard our undefended watering-places for half an hour or so, then hurry home again. These raids reminded one of the mischievous urchin who rings a front-door bell and runs away. But though there was no great naval action, there was plenty of hard fighting at sea; many a bold enterprise was carried through and many a gallant deed was performed.

Of the great British Navy the Harwich Forces formed but a small part, but they were typical of the whole Navy, and it was no small part that they took in far the most important theatre of the naval war--the North Sea. And now the Harwich Force of light cruisers and destroyers and the Submarine Flotilla, having carried through their great duty, are to be dispersed over the four quarters of the globe. Many have already sailed to the West Indies, to the Mediterranean, to the China seas, and elsewhere. The close bands of brothers who fought and died together through the great war are now to be broken up; and it requires little imagination to feel that they are loth thus to separate.

In these forces lives a spirit that recalls that of the military orders in the chivalrous days of the Crusades, when gallant knights were banded together to fight and sacrifice themselves for a great cause. To live for a while in these s.h.i.+ps is to find oneself in a purer, breezier atmosphere--an atmosphere of simple loyalty, old-fas.h.i.+oned patriotism, devotion to the Service, and cheery good-fellows.h.i.+p. These young men--for in the little s.h.i.+ps they are all young men, full of the joy of life, though veterans in war with great experiences--make one feel sorry for the people who, in the coming millennium that is being prepared by the politicians, will never have the chance of fighting for their country on land or sea.

Englishmen, and especially English naval officers, are not given to display of sentiment; but the members of the Harwich Force are justly proud of that Force, and regard themselves as indeed forming a band of brothers. Thus, after the signing of the armistice, at a dinner which was given by the captains of the destroyers of the Harwich Force to the great sailor who commanded that Force during the war, someone recited the stirring speech which Shakspeare puts into the mouth of Henry V. before Agincourt. These memorable words indeed well fitted the occasion:

This day is called--the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named, And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends And say--to-morrow is Saint Crispian: Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, And say, these wounds I had on Crispin's day.

Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day: Then shall our names, Familiar in their mouths as household words,-- Harry the king, Bedford, and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloster-- Be in their flowing cups freshly remembered: This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispian Crispin shall ne'er go by, From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered: We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; For he to-day that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen of England, now a-bed, Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap, while any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.