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[Page 131]
1916.
steam pressure was maintained, I felt that, as far as my own department was concerned, we were not so badly off. The behaviour of the stokers & artificers under these trying conditions was most praiseworthy. It was a great test of discipline & courage to carry out the various orders in complete ignorance of what had happened, except that something very serious had occurred. Gradually, it filtered down to us that we had been in collision with "New Zealand" whilst zig-zagging, & that we had crashed twice. Subsequent examination revealed that four compartments were flooded on our starboard side, whilst the ships stem had suffered severely, The resulting list was almost insignificant, & easily righted by flooding the corresponding compartments on the port side of the ship. "New Zealand" only received minor damage. We made our way back at 15 knots to Rosyth, a distance of 300 miles, arriving the following afternoon.
April 23.
Officials from Rosyth dockyard immediately came on board to ascertain the extent of the damage, with the result that by 10 p.m. we were again underway for the Tyne.
April 24.
We arrived there early next morning, & went into the floating dock. When the water had been pumped out of the dock, the real extent of the damage was plainly obvious. The stem of the ship was broken. All the side armour on the starboard side had been disturbed, whilst amidships, well