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[Page 18]
Gallipoli
31:10;15 – breath of wind disturbed its surface, and then the two ominous and dreaded black objects suddenly appeared on the surface not half a mile away, one to the right and the other to the left. The ship was caught in a cleft stick. The alarm was immediately given, and the troops crowded the decks, and rushed for – alas! the much-needed and missing life-belts and boats. They were welcomed instead with a terrific fusillade of shot and shell from a quick-firer and the rifles on each submarine which swept broadcast the deck of the ill-fated vessel with callous and brutal butchery. Five boats were only available. These were launched as quickly as possible, but two were so riddled with bullets that when they touched the water they simply filled and turned turtle emptying the poor devils of occupants into the icy sea. The Captain was the last to leave the ship and after a hard struggle reached one of the seaworthy boats which had been successfully launched. The submarines lost no time in putting a couple of torpedo into the doomed vessel and she blew up and sank with a gurgling roar five minutes after she had been struck. Three boats had managed to get away, and luckily they had some full water kegs aboard, otherwise their occupants would certainly have died then and there from downright thirst – as not even a biscuit could be found amongst them. Most of the survivors had been wounded and an Officer had several bullets in his legs. He had been capsized out of one of the boats and how he managed to keep afloat long enough to be picked up was a miracle. There were two or three Officers amongst the saved – the others were Indians and some of the vessel's Dago crew. Nothing could be done but make for a barren bit of an island which loomed on the horizon. After a long and bitter struggle the soddened-clothed, starved and thirsty survivors reached the shore. They found it to be inhabited only by a few ignorant Greek shepherds with goats, who treated them with marked hostility and refused them food. No explanation of their misery or condition would make the blasted Dagos give them any help. So they found snails on the beach and lived on them.
One of the crew volunteered to take a message to a cable station which he thought he could locate some miles away, and taking one of the boats he eventually succeeded in reaching the island, for which an urgent message was sent for assistance. A reply came that a cruiser would be despatched at once. The Greek brought the reply back to the stranded wretches, and after they had shown it to the inhospitable inhabitants they reluctantly killed a couple of goats on which the hungry survivors made a ravenous meal. Evidently the fear of what vengeance the cruiser might enact upon them on her arrival stirred the blighters to give some kind of help. The cruiser at last arrived – she was a 'foreigner' unfortunately – but she afforded what help she could, and took them away to the nearest port where proper attention could be given. A remarkable incident of the voyage back was that the Dago surgeon on the cruiser refused to amputate one of the legs of an Officer who was bleeding to death from a jagged shell wound. He agreed to give an anaesthetic, if anyone else could be found to do the job. So thereupon, rather than see his friend die before his eyes, another of the belated Officers who also had half a dozen wounds about him, and who was the only other Doctor available, consented to sit and be propped up and performed the operation with the blood oozing from his own agonising wounds whilst he amputated the right leg of his stricken chum. What a situation! Gad, the fellow had nerve, and thank God they are both alive to tell the tale and doing well. They are now in hospital at Malta and the closest of friends. I should think so – Eh What!" concluded the Colonel.
The "Marquette" which was torpedoed in the Gulf of Salonika a few days ago had on board a Red Cross detachment – also a Divisional Ammunition Column. She was treated by the submarines with ruthless severity – several Red Cross nurses were wounded and 600 horses were lost.
General Sir Ian Hamilton has been replaced by General Sir C.C. Munro, K.C.B., as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean