The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-19
THE BATTLE OFF FALKLAND

age in the water. They had all been through he'll poor devils.
 Tt was the most awful sight that I
 had ever seen. The water was just
 about freezing and they were all calling
 out; one could hear them three-qua rters
 of a mile off. We steamed up and low
 cred what was left of our boats and we
 picked up seven officers and 9S men.
 The Inflexible picked up lot more, bur they were drowning right and left, too weak to hold on. Some were wounded. of course One couldn't help being up- set about it. I counted 24 men sinking in one small patch; the water was very
 clear.
 ''The Glasgow and the Cornwall sank the Leipzig, and the Kent sank the We were pretty badly knocked about and you never saw such a mess If twisted iron and huge holes, and the wonderful thing, it is really almost be- yond belief, we hadn't got one casualty. Commander Townsend was knocked
 down and bruised his head but that
 was all. It will take some repairing. We
 were hit 34 times by S-inch shells. and
 they do make a mess of things, I can tell you One of the German officers is rlgged out in my old blue Norfolk
 jacket and an old pair of flannel trous- . CTS. Fourteen of the survivors have died; we buried them at sea this morn ing
 "December 29-We put in at Monte-
 Video yesterday. The consul and min-
 ister came off to see the admiral on business about 10 a. m I had 10 go ashore to bring them off. EverybodS | ashore seemed pleased with us and
 the tramway conductor shook me
 warmly by the hand and I had my picture taken 20 times at once We'll.
 the admiral and I went ashore at F o'clock to lunch. and once more, we were snapshotted every two minutes. After lunch we went to the embassy, and after a lot more business we had to sit down and be photographed again. We were then taken to big bun fight given by the English colony.
 They all clapped and clapped when we came in. Awful crush speeches and more photographs 1 escaped al D. m. A Uruguayan bloke came up and said
 to the admiral: May I take your flag lieutenant in my car and show him something of Montevideo? So off I
 went. It's fine town, and he took me
 to place where he said all the smart people went on Sunday It's on the sea, a sort of summer resort, enormous
 houses and lovely flowers, palms, etc.
 It was raining when we got there; a
 tropical shower, so we got an umbrel-
 la and dashed into the lounge, and to my horror the whole place was packeD| with people, who stood up and clapped
 and cheered. However, I did the idol
 smile and bowed right and left. q cursed my host softly, and I told him he was a brighter. So. with ev
 eryone staring at me as if I was a
 freak, we walked across a huge ball. ! room place and out into the veranda. where there were swarms more of
 very smart looking people, and I am bothered if the band didn't burst forth
 into God Save the King Then they all
 clapped again; it was awful. Then we sat down and drank champagne. After
 a bit we left, and went to the casino, where once more the band played God Save the King, and I had to bow and grin like fool. So when I came out | I said to him: Am I drunk or am I the king, what am I? Anyhow, 1t was time went back to fetch the admiral, so off we went. I got on board at 1:s0. It was a funny experience q had got bits of shells as memen-
 toes, and my brand new cap is full of holes. The two money chests were hit by shells, so at present we have no
 money. We intercept tho press tele- grams, so we get the war news every day"