The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-09-15
ENGLISH NAVY GOES TO SEA;
CRUISER LION BADLY SCARED
Ship Which Led Attack Upon Ger
mans in North Sea Has Been
Patched Up.

The last unlooked-for privilege al
lotted the American correspondent
who was permitted during the last
week to visit the British grand fleet
in harbor was that of passing the en-
tire fleet in review as it got under
way and went to sea, forming a line
of tremendous dreadnoughts which
across the water as far as
the eye could carry, with scores of
destroyers and light cruisers scouting
on either flank.
Orders to get under way came
while the visiting party was on board
Admiral Jellicoes flagship. The
guests were sent back aboard de-
stroyer, which took up its station at
the harbor entrance to watch the
fleet go by. First came a squadron
Of light cruisers and destroyers,
which circled about the ,harbor en-
trance at high speed, the destroyers
in particular dashing hither and yon,
foaming through the water at thirty
knots.
care not German submarines
waiting outsider one of the officers
on the destroyer which carried the
visitors was asked.
''No doubt two or three are always
there" he replied, ''but that is why
the light ships go out first. They
know how to keep them off,
After signals had been exchanged
and the destroyers and light cruisers
had combed the surface of the water
for periscopes as far as the horizon,
the great ships of the fighting line
began, one by one, to move out and
fall into line. The crew of each was
lined up on deck, the blue uniforms
of England's seamen forming the
only trace Of color to break the
monotony of dull gray of ships and
sea and sky, save where here and
there a bright colored signal-flag
snapped in the breeze at some giant
yardarm.
One after another the grim guard
ians Of England's coasts slipped by,
moving with steady precision, each
ship keeping such perfect interval
that not foot of difference appeared
to exist in the distance between any
stern and the next approaching bow.
The officers on the destroyer pointed
out each ship by name, calling atten-
ton to the differences in type, from
the first dreadnought up to the latest
sea-monster, the Queen Elizabeth.
One after another while the watch
ers counted, eig ht-siXeen-t~enty
dreadnoughts went by, and still the
harbor seemed as full of ships as it
had been, and the leading dread
nought was already lost to view in
the North Sea n1ists and the gather
ing dusk when the last went by, and
gave way to ships of the pre-dread-
nought classes bringing up the rear
AS the commander of the destroyer
looked at his watch, and with muir
INJURED apology took his guests to the
landing, in order that he might re-
sumo his own place in the vast array,
the correspondent had one last
glimpse Of that tremendous column
of fighters, the last not yet free OF
the harbor, the first long since van
ished into the distance-and he won
dered what Armageddon Of the sea
beyond the power of the human 1raag-
ination to realize might result should
the German fleet venture forth to
give it battle.
Before the fleet went to. sea the
Commander-in-Chief, Vice Admiral
Sir John Jellicoe, gave his visitors an
opportunity to visit all the larger
ships in his command, particularly
those that have already been in ac-
ton during the present war.
Of these the most interesting was
Vice Admiral Sir David Beatty's
flagship, the thirty-knot battle cruis-
er Lion, which led the line in the
North Sea battle when the Bluecher
was sunk. until a German shell,
striking between wind and water,
forced her to surrender her place to
her sister, the Tiger.
The Lion showed more marks Of
rough handling than any of the other
big ships in the fleet, and her Off
GERS explained that even at that rate
she did not give complete evidence
Of her baptism of fire, because por.
tions which received the heaviest
damage have since been completely
rebuilt. None the less, there were
many patches and scars to be seen on
her plating.
The officers of the Lion welcomed
the chance to talk Of the battle, since
the Heligoland fight last August the
only interlude of excitement in the
monotony of waiting. They told Of
the difficulty they had in persuadine
Admiral Beatty, one OF, the youngest
commanders that ever took squad
ron into action, to leave the bridge
when the first German salvoes
screamed overhead and seek the shell
ter of the coming tower.
They also told of perhaps the most
exciting episode Of the entire battle
when the crippled Lion was being
towed home at five knots, with half
dozen German submarines circline
about her like sharks about a dere
ict vainly trying to pierce the screen
of British destroyers and send hcme
a fatal blow.
The Tiger, which, according to the
Germans, was sunk in that same &C.
ticn. had actually fewer scars to
show than her sister, and the Queen
Elizabeth brought home few marks
from the Dardanelles save few
new planks in her deck where
Turkish she'll burst.
Next to the Lion, the Inflexib1e,
another battle cruiser, brought home
the greatest number of honorable
scars, a few from the Falkland Is
lands battle, but more from the Oar
danelles, including piece of the
Turkish mine which very nearly end
ed her career. kept in the wardroom
as souvenir.