The Madison journal. (Tallulah, Madison Parish, La.) 1888-current, 1915-11-13
BLOW UP, OWN
BOAT To SAVE
:.
It FROM TURKS
Two Picket Boat Crews of British
Sailors Daringly Destroy
Stranded Submarine.
MAKES A THRILLING STORY
Admiral Calls for Volunteers to Go on
Perilous Undertaking in Dead Of
Night-SearchIiehts and Enc
my Shells Play About the
Merry Crews.

Merry Crews.
London.-An extremely interesting
account of the destruction of the Brit
fish submarine ELS in the Dardanelles
to prevent her from falling into the
hands of the Turks is given by one OF
the men who took part in the exploit.
II will be recalled that the ELS went
up the Dardanelles at daylight on
April IL in an attempt to torpedo
Turkish ship at the Narrows. The
boat ran ashore in KepheZ bay few
miles west of Chanak, on the Asiatic
shore.
The accident to the ELS was dis
covered by the brother of the subma-
rine's captain, who went up as an OBJ
server in an aeroplane to watch the
dash of the small craft commanded by
his brother. II was he who reported
to the admiral commanding the Brit
fish feet that the coming tower Of
the frail boat was closed and that a
Turkish destroyer was standing by
evidently planning to begin salvage
operations.
Extracts from the story, printed in
Blackwood's Magazine, follow:
The coming tower and a little Of
the whaleback were showing above
water. Submarine BIG went up, but
could not do anything. as the current
was SO strong. She fred one torpedo.
but could not see If she hit. That
night two destroyers went up the
strtit to attack ELS. They got fairly
near her, but saw nothing to fire at.
Volunteer Crews Only"
As last resort the admiral sent
the following: Two picket boats from
Triumph and Majestic are to attack
ELS tonight with torpedoe3 fitted to
dropping gear. Lieutenant commander
E. @. Robinson of Vengeance will be
in charge of operations. Only volun-
teer crews to be sent This officer
was ordered to take charge. as his
ship had been on patrol at the time
Els struck. and he knew exactly
where she was.
You can imagine the order rather
astonished us, as 1t was almost certain
death to take small steamboats, right
up under the enemy's guns, and into
water every inch of which was COW
cred by powerful searchlights.
AT p. m. we hoisted out our picket
boat and fitted the dropping gear. We
also placed Maxim gun in the bow,
rifles and ammunition and life belt
for each man. / was ordered to cut
down the crew to the smallest possible
number. Many men wanted to go, but
settled on two seamen gunners for the
Maxim, four seamen torpedo men 1.-TWO
each side), one leading stoker. two
stokers and torpedo petty officer to
act as coxswain. So altogether we
had one officer myself and ten men.
also Lieutenant Commander Robinson,
who was In command of both boats,
and Midshipman Woolley, also from
the Vengeance.
while 1t was still light the captain
kept about three miles outside the en-
trance. with our boats on the side of
the ship away from the shore, SO that
the enemy, even with powerful glasses,
could not have any idea of what was
going on.
Weather Was Too Fine.
AT s p. m. the weather looked very
suitable-overcast. with a slight haze
over the land and indications of light
rain-but later 1t cleared up and be-
came too fine for our liking.
AT 10 p. m. the Majestic's boat ar.
rived, with Lieut.. c. H. Goodwin, R. ~,
in charge, and shortly after we pushed
on, with my boat leading and the Ma
jestic following about 800 yards astern.
1T was bit eerie. steaming along
In the pitch dark with all lights out in
the boat, toward the distant search.
lights. not knowing whether death or
life awaited one
The whole distance was about Il
miles from the ship, the last five be
ing the really dangerous part. Up to
there ones only danger was mines
and, as We only drew FIVE feet, we
hoped we would go over them all right
though IT was quite on the cards We
would bump a floating mine.
I'VE kept nearly in the center of the
channel to avoid being spotted by the
Suandere No. searchlight, which was
not a very high one. We had come
along quite unobserved until we were
abeam of II, passing the smaller search.
lights without much trouble. Unfor.
tunately the men stationed near the
Suandere searchlight saw us and start.
ed on firing or II pdr. shrapnel.
Thus the ball opened-we still had
three or four miles to go. We continued
our way and approached the other
searchlights. The alarm having been
given, all the other searchlights came
on and sent their beams searching
round to pick us up. and as each beam
struck us, bang would go another gun.
few seconds later we would hear a
ping as the projectile whizzed. past
e~es~~~~~~~~~~~