The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-06-28


shore took a hand in the game with
small guns and rifles and as the Ella
Unanswered about the roadstead as
requisite" there was sudden unac-
countable explosion which strained
her very badly.
Il think" she muses., Il must have
caught those moorings of mine with
my tail as L was turning and exploded
it. 1t is possible it might have been
big shell bursting near us, but think
this was unlikely, as we were 80 feet
under at the time"
She was always a philosop hical boat
and anxious to arrive at the reason for
the facts and when the game is against
her she admits it freely.
There was nondescript craft of
few hundred tons who. lat a distance.
did not look warlike,'' but when
chased suddenly displayed a couple of
six-pounders and got off two dozen
rounds at us before we could get I'M
der. Some of them hit only about
twenty yards off,
When the willy steamer, after siding
along the shore, lay up in front of
town, she became indistinguishable
from the houses, because we do not
lowestrafe an open town.
A Golden Deed
Sailing dhows full of grain had to
be destroyed. At one rendezvous,
while waiting for the Eli, the Ella
dealt with three such cases. She
then towed the crews inshore and
gave them biscuit beef, rum and wa
ter, as they were rather wet.
| Passenger steamers were allowed to
proceed because they were full of peo-
pie of both sexes, which is an uncut
tured way of doing business.
| Here is another instance of our in
sular type of mind. An empty dhow
passed which the Ella was going to
leave alone but it occurs to her that
J. CHa
fancies she sees two heads in the
water, SO she goes back half mile,
picks up a couple of badly exhausted
men who are frightened out of their
wits. gives them food and drink and
puts them aboard properly. The crews
that jump overheard have to be pick
ed up even if, as happened in one case,
there are twenty of them and one is
| a German bank manager taking a
quantity of money to the Chanak bank.
The hospital ships are carefully
looked over as they come and go and
are left to their own devices. but they
are rather nuisance because they
force the Ella and others to dive for
them when they are engaged in stalk
ing warrantable game. There are a
good many hospital ships and as far
as we can NIKE out, they all played
fair. The Ell boarded one and re-
ported everybody satisfactory.
The 1ayman cannot tell from the re-
ports which duties demanded most
work, whether it was the continuous
clearing out of transports, dhows and
sailing ships generally found close to
the well-gunned and attentive beach,
or the equally continuous attack on
armed vessels of every kind.
Have to save Crews.
Whatever else might be going on,
there is always the problem of how
to arrange for the crews of the sunk
1 hi Il L.,
and you cannot find one handy, you
have to take the crew aboard where
they are horribly in the way.
In one case nine people, including
two very old men, were made hon.
orary members of the mess of the E.
: them ashore after dark" Oddly
enough, she could not get anything
out of them" Imagine nine bewildered
meslems decoyed into the reeking
clamorous bowels of a ship obviously
built by Satan himself surrounded by
but our people are people in books
and not dog eating kaffirs and will
wager a great deal that that little
company went ashore in better heart
and stomach than when they passed
down the coming tower hatch.
Then there were queer amphibious
; battles with troops who had to be
shelled as they marched towards Gal
lipoH along the coast roads. The
, Ella went out with the Ell on thi.
job early one morning, each boat ta k.
: ing a chosen section of the Landscape
: Thrice the Ella rose to fire, thinkins
she saw the dust of feet, but "eacI
time it turned out to be bullocks."
Next she changed billets with tn,
Ell who had the luck to pick up anc
put down a battleship close to Gal
. lipoi. 1t turned out to be the Bar
. barossa.
. Meantime, the Ella got a five to1
supply ship and later had to burn
sailing ship loaded with 200 bales o
= leaf cut tobacco-Turkish tobacco
3 and, small wonder, the Ell "cam
y alongside in the afternoon and re
0 manned for an hour" probably maxim,
d cigarettes.
= Back to Her Base
e Then the Ella went back to he
g base. She had hellish time amon
: the Dardanelies nets, was, of course
S fired at by the. forts, just missed
o mine and, when she had time to in
e vestigate, found that the electric min
r wires were twisted around her pro
s pellers and all her hull was scrape
r and scored by wire marks: But tina
= again was only in the days work.
e The point she insisted upon was tina
d she had been for seventy days in tn
Sea of Marmora. with no securer bas
: for a refit than the center of the sam'
n and during all this while she had nc
n had ANY engine room defect whic
q was not put right by the engine roof
II staff on the boat
J. The commander and the third OF
# ficer went sick for a while, the firs
d lieutenant got gastric enteritis and wa
in bed-if you could say it was a be
for the remainder of the stay in tn
Sea of Marmora, but this boat wa
l. never out CT running ORDER Cred
for this is ascribed to the excellence {
e my chief engine room fortifie
James HoIlier Hague, c. N. 227,715,
% whose name has been duly submitte
o to the authorities for your considers
u ton for advancement to the rank {
IL warrant officer"
a
le pACTETCTC SID