Q-Ships and Their StoryChatterton, E. Keble (Edward Keble)
History
Q-Ships and Their Story
Chatterton, E. Keble (Edward Keble)
Q-ships; World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations
On the morning, then, of the seventh, picture _Pargust_ in Lat. 51.50
N., Long. 11.50 W., jogging along at her slow speed. At that time
there was scarcely a steamer that was not armed with some sort of a
gun; therefore, if a Q-ship did not display one aft, she would have
looked suspicious. _Pargust_ kept up appearances by having a dummy gun
mounted aft with a man in uniform standing by. I well remember that
day. There was a nasty sea running, and the atmosphere varied from the
typical Irish damp mist to heavy rain. At 8 a.m. out of this thickness
_Pargust_ descried a torpedo, apparently fired at close range, racing
towards her starboard beam. When about 100 yards off it jumped out of
the water and struck the engine-room near the waterline, making a large
tear in the ship’s side, filling the boiler-room, engine-room, and No.
5 hold, and blowing the starboard lifeboat into the air.
[Illustration: Q-SHIP “DUNRAVEN”
Showing forward well-deck and bridge.
To face p. 200]
[Illustration: FIG. 14.—DIAGRAM TO ILLUSTRATE APPROXIMATE MOVEMENTS OF
‘PARGUST’ AND UC 29 ON JUNE 7, 1917.]
Captain Campbell then gave the order to abandon ship, and the panic
party went away in three boats, and just as the last boat was
pushing off a periscope was sighted 400 yards on the port side forward
of the beam. It then turned and made for the ship, and submerged when
close to the lifeboat’s stern, then came on the starboard quarter,
turned towards the ship and, when 50 yards away, partially broke
surface, heading on a course parallel, but opposite, to that of
_Pargust_, the lifeboat meanwhile pulling away round the steamer’s
stern. The submarine followed, and a man was seen on the conning-tower
shouting directions. The lifeboat then rowed towards the ship, and
this apparently annoyed the Hun, who now began semaphoring the boats;
but at 8.36 a.m. the submarine was only 50 yards off, and was bearing
one point before the beam, so all _Pargust’s_ guns were able to bear
nicely. Fire was therefore opened, the first shot from the 4-inch gun
hitting the base of the conning-tower and removing the two periscopes.
Nearly forty more shells followed, most of them being hits in the
conning-tower, so that the submarine quickly listed to port, and
several men came out of the hatch abaft the conning-tower. She was
already obviously in a bad way, with her heavy list and her stern
almost submerged, and oil squirting from her sides.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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