Stories of the ShipsFreeman, Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome)
History
Stories of the Ships
Freeman, Lewis R. (Lewis Ransome)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Naval operations
"I was watching the whole of that show, sir, from just where you're
standing now," the voice went on after the lost "defender" had been
found and replaced, "and it was just behind you that the shell that
sheared off our range-finder and killed the range-taker passed on
through the screen and into the sea. It was either that shell or the
fragment of another (I could never quite make sure which) that cut off
and carried away one half of a pair of prism glasses hanging there,
leaving the other just as good as ever. We still have the remnant in our
mess as a memento."
Flash and roar and that spectral upheaving of foam-fountains in the
converging rays of the searchlights crowded most other things out of the
next hour or two, and it was only when the night-firing was over and we
were headed back for our anchorage in the cold light of the early dawn
that I discovered that it was a young signalman who had been standing
watch beside me during the exercises. Keen and alert he looked in spite
of the sleepless night behind him, and it was easy to believe him when
he told me that his had been the honour of being the first man in the
_Sydney_ to sight the "strange ship" which subsequently turned out to be
the long-sought-for _Emden_.
"It was just the luck of my chancing to be on watch with a good pair
of glasses," he said modestly; "but that was by no means the limit of
my luck in connexion with the _Emden_ show. When we went to 'Action
Stations,' I was ordered to come up here and do nothing but keep an eye
on the collier that had been standing-by the _Emden_ at first, but which
got away under full steam just as soon as it was plain we were going to
give her 'whats for.' I carried out orders all right as far as keeping
an eye on the collier was concerned, but my other eye, and my mind, were
on the _Emden_ ring of the circus. I don't really suppose there was
another man on the _Sydney_ who had as little to do, and therefore as
much time to see what was going on, as I did. But that wasn't the end of
my luck, for I was one of the party that went ashore the next morning to
round up the Huns that had landed on Direction Island, and then, after
that, I was in the first boat that went to bring off prisoners from the
_Emden_. So you see I had a fairly good-all-round kind of a 'look see.'
My training as a signalman made it natural for me to jot down things as
I saw them, and I think that I still have a page of memorandum where I
made notes during the fight of what time some of the things happened. If
you'd like to see it, sir----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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