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[Page 13]
We arrived Malta 21st March. 23rd March we go into Dock and it was found necessary to put 13 new plates on the bottom. April 9th the submarine depot ship Adamant arrived with submarines E 11, 14 and 15.
The following day they left for the Dardanelles. We came out of dock April 16th. April 18th we go outside the harbour for a trial run everything is satisfactory. We leave for Lemnos the same evening. After a fairly good trip we arrive Lemnos April 22nd and go alongside the Adamant. The following day we were fall in on the upper deck of the Adamant while the Captain of the Adamant read out a recommendation from the Admiralty on AE 11's good work, both for record steaming and for escorting the second contingent from Australia, only spending a few days in harbour during the 12 months she had been in commission. In the 12 months we had steamed nearly 40,000 miles. He finished up by saying that we were recommended for 7 days leave at the first opportunity.
After this we were ordered to get in one month's provisions and be ready to proceed by 2 p.m. the same day. By this order we had a good idea where we were going (Dardanelles). After taking in provisions we cast off from the Adamant at 2 p.m., and lay off from the battleship Queen Elizabeth while a wireless officer came off to inspect our wireless to see that it was correct: then we proceeded to Tenedos arriving there 6.30 a.m. 23rd April.
After a short trial dive we went alongside the Swiftsure and made fast, we took in some more provisions which we could not get from the Adamant. We then had sufficient food to last us from for a month to or 6 weeks. We then knew that we were leaving that night at 1.30 a.m. to make a passage through the Dardanelles. An honour for the small young Aust. Fleet. We were all greatly excited and I think the majority of us had very little sleep that night: no boat had up till this time been through the Dardanelles and we did not know what dangers awaited us in the way of mines and nets etc.
A French submarine had been sunk in attempting a passage in January 1915 and one of our submarines on April 17th 1915, so we were the third to make an attempt and the first to succeed. We got through- another case of "Aust will be there" but didn't get back. We cast off from the Swiftsure at 1.30 and proceed to the entrance of the Dardanelles, it being our object to get as far as we could on the surface, without being seen by the searchlights and before daylight. On entering the Dardanelles, between Cape Helles and Kum Kale there was a small gasoline searchlight on our starboard hand. However we got by this without being noticed. We got about six miles inside the entrance. The searchlights on the forts of Chanak were very bright, but they seemed to be very careless as if not expecting to see anything. Owing to the searchlights we were forced to dive at 4.5 a.m. At this stage a very unlucky accident happened. our foremost hydroplane coupling broke. This was