Days to Remember: The British Empire in the Great WarBuchan, John
History
Days to Remember: The British Empire in the Great War
Buchan, John
World War, 1914-1918
But only for two hours; daylight comes early in northern waters. At 2
a.m. Commander Goodhart dived again, and lay long in 17 fathoms,
spending his time in studying the chart. He was now well out of the
Sound, and clear of the Swedish coast. Right ahead was the island of
Bornholm, and if that could be passed successfully, the Baltic lay open
beyond, a long voyage still, but a less crowded thoroughfare.
At 9 a.m. he came to the surface for three hours. By noon he was not
far west of Ronne, and as he wished to make sure of getting past
Bornholm unobserved, he decided to remain on the bottom till dark, then
slip by and recharge his batteries for a long run north by daylight. By
7 p.m. he was on his way; by sunrise on the 21st he was passing the east
coast of the great island of Gotland. At 9.2 p.m. he dived for a light
cruiser, which passed over him; at 10 he returned to the surface and ran
past the entrance to the Gulf of Riga and the island of Oesel. By 1
a.m. on August 22nd he had to dive for daylight, but at 3 he came up
again, and ran ahead at full speed. At 8.30 a.m. on August 23rd he
sighted Dagerort ahead, and joined Commander Max Horton in E9, passed
with her and a Russian destroyer into the Gulf of Finland, and by 9 p.m.
secured E8 in Reval harbour. Within twenty-four hours he had docked and
overhauled her, replaced her broken propeller, and reported her ready
for sea.
Of the warships sunk by E8 and her consorts, and of their blockade of
the German traffic in the Baltic, there is no need to speak. Their
feats of war, brilliant as they were, formed only a minor part of the
glory of their intricate and perilous voyages in a hostile sea.
*CHAPTER XXVIII.*
*THE MERCANTILE MARINE AND FISHING FLEETS.*
Among the great deeds of the war there is one which, though hardly to be
described in detail, ranks in truth among the greatest of all. It is a
collective deed: the conduct of the whole British Mercantile Marine and
the Fishing Fleet—Services not less worthy than the professional Navy
and Army to represent the "decent and dauntless people" of these
islands. It had been prophesied before the war that after three ships
had been sunk by enemy submarines no merchantman would put to sea. The
prophet, though himself a naval man, can have known little of the
resourcefulness of his own Service, and still less of the temper of his
fellow-countrymen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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