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[Page 23]
from us we were all put to our diving stations so as to be ready to get under at a moments notice, but they refused to fire on us till they were within about 800 yards of us. One shot fell about 100 yards off our starboard bow and one passed just over us. We immediately dived and when we were down to a depth of 40 feet one destroyer rushed over us at full speed thinking that perhaps we had not got down far enough and that she might be able to ram us. After remaining down about twenty minutes we came to the surface the destroyers were well clear of us so we started our engines and steamed towards Marmora Island. We had not been under way 10 minutes before we sighted E 14. She like ourselves had just come to the surface. This was indeed a delightful sight for us as it meant company. We ran up close to her and exchanged greeting. She had come through two days after us, 27th April. It was then getting late so after making a rendez-vous for the following day we parted. We proceed to a small bay on the European shore to lay on the bottom for the night. *
[Hand written insert at this place]
Lieut. Commander E.C. Boyle R.N. came into Sea of Marmora on 27th April 1915, two days after AE.2 & did not return to his base until 3 weeks later. During that time she did good work sank a gunboat, 2 Transports one with 6000 troops aboard, & with E 11 generally played havoc with the morale of the enemy, shelling the troop trains carrying Turkish reinforcements to Gallipoli. These soldiers preferred the long march of nearly 70 miles by the one solitary road used for such purposes rather than face the unexpected terrors of the deep.
I believe the Official record of the E. 14 in the 3 trips to the Sea of Marmora was a bag of 50 enemy boats. In view of her splendid services here Boyle receives the V.C. & his officers D.S.C & all other ratings D.S.M.
After the Dardanelles effort was given up, E.14 went on patrol duty in the Adriatic. When the "Goeben" ran aground in Dardanelles Jan. 1918, the E 14 was sent to torpedo her. They found the "Goeben" had got off during the night. The E 14 was seen & chased bu Patrol Boats which dropped depth charges close to her. She got the full result of this "sea" quake not unlike an earth quake
[page 2 of insert]
& began to leak badly. Coming to the surface she was shelled consistently & had to dive again. However her many leaks caused her to break surface in trying to reach outer harbour of Dardanelles but finally when the forts & gun boats & destroyers found her range & kept it until she became a total wreck. Only 9 of the crew of 31 were saved.
One of these 9 was Able Bodied Seaman Mitchell of Creswick Road Ballarat the only Aust. on board & he acted most gallantly. When He was on the conning tower with the 3 officers passing orders below to the helmsman. The all the officers were swept off the bridge by shell fire & he was left alone & took charge. Although the enemy had the exact range & he was the only man visible he remained at his post & took charge of the sinking doomed boat & carried on as well as he cl until she sank.
When in the water he rescued the wireless operator who had been wounded in the face & was unconscious. There was no senior officer to recommend him for distinction & his only reward for gallant conduct was in the self evident fact that he did his duty: BRAVO Australia!
[Continuing page 21]
We got under way and rose to the surface about 8 a.m. Nothing was in sight so we proceeded on our way to meet E.14. On our way we sighted smoke on the horizon. This was soon seen to be a torpedo boat and a gunboat coming from Gallipoli. When they were about 2 miles off we stopped engines and stood by to dive at a moments notice. The torpedo boat soon sighted us and came full speed towards us. We immediately dived but it was soon seen that something was wrong with the boat.
[Insert at side of page]
She appeared to be heavy by the bows and when the captain looked round the boat A main ballast tank was found to be full of water the valves on this tank had not been touched how it became full is a mystery the only thing we could put this accident down to was that the water had leaked into this tank during the time we were lying on the bottom for we had had a hurried refit in Malta.
In trying to rectify this we broke surface and the torpedo boat (which was up to within a hundred yards of us) immediately fired on us, putting two shots through into the engines room. This made it impossible for us to dive again as the water was pouring in, so we had to surrender. We had no means of putting up a fight as we had no gun and we could not fire our remaining torpedo. During the time we were laying on the surface before we surrendered the torpedo boat fired two torpedoes at us and the gunboat one. All these torpedoes missed. If we had been struck by one of these torpedoes we should have been blown out of the water. When we came on deck to surrender the gunboat and torpedo boat were still firing on us, but immediately we surrendered the torpedo boat stopped firing and commenced steaming around at full speed blowing her siren to try and make the gunboat stop firing. As she was a greater distance away we were quite safe as all her shots were falling short. After about five minutes she stopped firing and came up close to us. The submarine was lying at an angle down by the bows and sinking very slowly. Everybody had plenty of time to get on deck. The torpedo boat ran up close to us and threw out life belts and lowered a small dingey. Our coxswain called out and told all those who could swim to jump in and go towards the torpedo boat and