Evening star., 1927-09-25
'laved Crucial Part in Averting Disaster for Allies

tween him and the submarine. entirely
blotting out his adversary.
LAS our duty was to sink the Subma.
rine, even If the whole boat was ir,
flames. It was up to US to risk beinS
roasted alive or blown to pieces by
the explosion Of the shells in the hold,
There was nothing for ii but to wak
until the submarine was within rangk
again. Looking death straight in the
face, Gordon Campbell decided 10 do
this. Therefore, we waited Until the
submarine, which was as annoyed as
we were, had circled our boat so as to
get into position to fire more shells.
Meanwhile, fire was raging in the
powder magazine. The iron deck on
which the sailors were Crouching grew
hotter from minute to minute. These
brave men, oblivious to danger and
disdainful of their pain, had hut one
worry They must not let themselves
be seen and thus betray the true ma.
ture of the ship
when the submarine finally came
into range, Gordon Campbell was
about to order us to open fire. when.
unfortunately, the hold in which the
munitions were stored blew up. The
100 nm. gun which was ready for aC.
ton, was hurled into the air along
with the officers. range finders and
sailors who operated 1t. AS soon as
the Germans saw the explosion. they
realized that they were mixed up with
a trapboat. and they made haste TO
submerge and disappear.
Knowing them as we did. we were
perfectly sure that we were about 20
be torpedoed. That was what hap.
pened Scarcely had we recovered
from the first shock Of the explosion
in the hold when we felt another,
caused by a torpedo Of which we could
hardly see the wake. Even more dis
astrous than the first one, this second
explosion put out of order the last Of
our means Of transportation. The
telephones would no longer work: the
speaking tubes had long since been
destroyed.
Although the entire stern was on
fire, Gordon Campbell was not down.
hearted He knew he could still rely
upon two of the guns and the torpe-
does. He conceived the wild idea OF
launching second panic party on a
raft and the one remaining lifeboat.
Several men carried the dead and
wounded down to the raft, which was
then taken in tow by the lifeboat.
''The commanders idea, Of course.
was to coax the Germans into believ.
ing that the Dunraven, in flames and
abandoned by the last remnant Of her
crew. was harmless and that nothing
could be easier than to finish her of.
Crouched down on deck. joking with
his gunners. he kept careful watch Of
the submarine as it rose slowly to
surface towards the stern of the
Dunraven. From that position not one
of our guns could reach it. Although
our boat was on fire (for the fire ragged
during the entire four hours that the
struggle lasted and the flames kept
creeping up farther and farther. the
submarine feared some new surprise
and kept shelling us. sweeping our
decks with shrapnel. At last, satisfied
that nothing on board had survived.
it came out into the open.
THAT was what Gordon Campbell
was waiting for. With the enemy to
one side and in plain sight, we
launched a torpedo that missed them
by a few inches. We cried with ragei
Luckily they didn't notice it and con-
tinued to 60 forward. We launched a
second torpedo. It struck home.
THE submarine plunged to the bot
tom of the sea.
"The Dunraven followed suit. Al
though it contained large quantities
Of wood and cork. which should have
made it impossible to sink it, they had
been destroyed by, the fire, and the
good ship consequently disappeared
lebeneath the waves
T "Gordon Campbell, as calm as ever
arnid the wreckage of his ship, at
length sent out an S osSy A few
minutes later the American yacht
Norma and English destroyers
Alcock and Christopher arrived on the
scene of battle. We climbed aboard
as the last of the Dunraven vanished
into the sea-"
lCnnrrizht 1871