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[Page 44]
removed out of the way of the gun and later on when the stunt was finished he was sewn up and in a week or so was quite alright again. Master Fritz soon had enough of it and retired below but unluckily for him in one case he was not quite quick enough as the "Parramatta" got in a depth charge and blew Germans to the only place they had a right to inhabit.
Just Too Late
Next morning we arrived at Malta, handing over our Convoy to the authorities there. The flotilla came to rest in French Creek, Valetta, there to await our future disposition at the hands of the C. in C. Mediterranean. A few days after our arrival there an "S.O.S." was received and three of us were ordered out to the scene of the trouble some hundred miles or so West of Malta. We arrived to find the ship - a big Merchantman - had been only too well and truly hit sinking more than an hour before our arrival, her crew being picked up by an escort sloop. Anchoring that night in St. Pauls Bay we returned to Valetta next morning. As the flotilla had not yet had any opportunity of exercising as a whole, it was decided to send us to Corfu in whose well protected and sheltered waters we could carry out gunnery and torpedo practice and also steam tactics in safety and comfort.
On Sept. 20th we arrived at this very ancient town whose destinies have been governed by many races and creeds all down the centuries.
Corfu at this time flew the flags of France, Great Britain and Italy and appeared to be a town of refuge for unemployed Serbian, Montenegrin and Roumanian officers. It was also the head quarters of the French battle fleet - a sort of Mediterranean Rosyth or Scapa Flow - whose duty it was to be ready to engage the Goeben or any of the big Russian ships which might fall into the hands of the Germans and attempt a sortie from the Dardanelles.
This is no time or place to dilate on the past history of this most historical and fascinating isle with its old world battlements and cypress and vine clad hills. To us in the flotilla, Corfu's most dominant note of interest lay in the fact that the Kaiser had a palace here on the island. No doubt most people have read of the