The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1918-10-17

I
they were garbles. and ! always feel
more at nome with them than with SOL
dlers. Then, II was pretty rough stun
mt Dixmude, and after resting up at
/ the hospital, was keen on going to
sea again.
The Cassnrd was In dry dock for re-
pairs after her hast voyage to the Oar
danelles as convoy to the troopship
Duplex. Everything was being rushed
TO get her out as soon as possible. and
crews were working day and night.
There were other ships there too-su-
perdreadnaughts, and dreadnaughts,
and battleships. and armored cruisers,
all being overhauled.
We received and placed guns OF
newer design. filed the magazines with
the highest explosives known 10 naval
use. and generally made ready for a
hard Job. Our magazines were filed
with shells for our big IL and 14-inch
/ guns. A 14-inch shell can tear a hole
through the heaviest armor plate at
1900 yards. and will do more damage
than you would think.
! w We luu tOuitu kOt
+ our stores aboard, We dressed for ac-
tion-or rather. undressed. The decks
were clear; hatch covers bolted and
I davits folded down: furniture. chests,
/ tables, chairs were sent ashore, and In
| fammable gear. like our rope hahn
mocks. went overheard. You could
not find a single wooden chair or table
In the ward room.
When the ship is cleared for action.
a shell bursting inside cannot find
] much to set afire. and II one bursts on
/ deck, there is nothing TO burn but the
wooden deck. and that is covered with
steel plate.
/ Finally. we had roll call-all men
present. Then we set sail for the
pardanelles as escort to the Duplex.
which had on board territorial and
provincial French troops-Gascons,
Parlsians. Normans, lndo-Chinese,
Spahls, Turcos-all kinds. When we
messed. we had 10 squat down on the
steel mess deck and eat from metal
plates.
There had been a notice posted be-
fore we left that the Zeppelins had be-
gun sea raids. and we kept a 1--we eye
out for them. The news proved to be
fake. though. and we did not see a
single cigar while we were out.
We made the trip to the Dardanellas
without sighting an enemy craft, keep
ing In close touch with the Duplex,
and busy every minute preparing for
I action.
l was made gun captain and given
charge OF the starboard bow turret.
mounting two 14-inch guns. l had my
men at gun practice daily. and by the
time we neared the Dardanelles, after
five days, they were in pretty fair
shape.
II was about 3 a. m. when we drew
near Cape Helles and took stations
for action. The Duplex was in front
% us. The batteries on the cape
opened up on US, and In a few min
utes later those at Kun Kaleh Joined
In.
AS the Duplex made for "V" beach
and prepared 10 land her troops, we
swung broadslde on. raking their bat
teres as we did so, and received a
shell, which entered through a gun
port in the after turret and exploded.
Some bags OF powder stored there
(where they should never have been)
were fired and the roof OF the turret
was just lifted off. II landed on deck,
tilted up against the side Of the tur-
ret.
On deck the rain Of fire was simply
terrific. Steel flew In all directions,
II was smash, crash, slam-bang all
the time, and do not mind saying l
never thought we would come out
OF IL.
, Some Of the heavy armor plate up
forward was shot away and after that
the old Cassard looked more like a
monitor than anything else 10 me. AS
we drew nearer the shore they began
using shrapnel on us and In no time
at all our tunnels were shot full OF
holes and sieve was watertight COM
pared TO them.
Naturally we were not just taking
all this punishment without any come
back. Our guns were at II fast and
from the way the fire slackened IN
certain places we knew we were max
ing II effective. My guns did for two
enemy pieces that know of. and per
haps several others.
The French garbles were a good
deal more excited in action than
thought they would be. They were
lodging around below decks. trying
10 miss the shrapnel that came
aboard. shouting. swearing. singing
but fighting hard. at that. They stood
the gan just as well as any other
garbies would. only In their own
sweet way-which is noisy enough,
believe me.
One Of our seamen was hit 13C
times by fragments Of shrapnel. s.