State Library of NSW
[Page 51]
May 24th there was an armistace at Gaba Tepe for the burial of the dead but we had further scares of submarines off Southern Gallipoli. Everyone was in fact on the 'qui vive' and determined not to be caught napping so that any object in the water was apt to be taken for a periscope. Thus alarms were caused by floating tins, empty barrels, a waterlogged boat and more than once by the bodies of dead horses which I have an Inconvenient and most objectionable habit of floating with one of their legs in the air which exactly ressembles the periscope of a submarine.What may be asked was the effect of these continual alarms on the crews of our ships, and what are the feelings of the average individual when he has to pass day after day night after night expecting to be blown up by an enemy he cannot even see? They vary according to the character of the crew. On a ship like the Swiftsure carrying nearly all active service ratings highly disciplined and as keen as mustard the whole thing seemed to be regarded as a form of sport. The men actually got up a sweepstake the winner to be the first man who actually sighted a periscope. There was in fact the greatest keenness on board to stamp out these pests. The fourteen pounders were kept loaded with their crews on watch by day and asleep around them at night ready to fire at a moment's notice. Mixed up with this feeling of menance and invisible danger there is also a sense of the ridiculous which lends a humorous aspect to the affair. You feel so strong and powerful on a battleship solidly protected by armour that it seems unreal and unnatural that a small craft 'somewhere under the Mediterranean' manned
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