Imperial Valley press., 1937-03-28

Owner" ever went out with more
enthusiasm and zeal or with
more desire to do his duty.
Some men live a fast life and
expect to die as quickly and
of these was one. For a time ]
felt important with my new COM
mand, but even that sensation
wears off. The service gives sew.
eral emotions. and one is humility
devotion to duty. This helped as
we sailed out to search for Fritz,
up and down the coast, in and out
of ports. on the watch constantly
encountering fog, heavy
weather Duty was constant, "a
hours a day. No shore leave if it
could be avoided was justifying
the trust given me by superiors
and probably for one of the few
times in my life felt the weight
of responsibility
From the Dardanelles came ru-
mors of action, which | was to
miss patrolling the narrow
sea" with no excitement. When
a sub was sighted or fired on,
was usually at least 400 miles
away, and began to feel that the
black joss had me again Appeals
for a transfer fell on deaf ears.
My Tarq4in was a small world
from which glamour had fed. My
crew was fine set of men, sound
fishermen and sailors, with four
old-line gun layers. But ! wanted
something different. There was no
chance for a citation or promo
ton. l imagined that if the Navy
served the Turks as we had Won
Spec the war would soon be over,
and my experience would have
been mostly on the North Sea
a discouraging prospect. had, it
seemed, a legitimate personal
grievance against the German Ad-
miral Won Tripitz it was by
his declaration that the English
Channel and surrounding waters
had become a war zone, holding
mine sweepers close at home
Desire a thing hard enough and
you often get it. 1t may be good
for you or not, depending on many
things but desire has a queer
way of being answered. The good
joss came back. gave me another
push. Another step ahead The
skipper of an old type of destroyer
was promoted to new ship, and
his berth tell to me 1t was the
TdrneH, built as a ship of war,
and not a converted fishing yes
sci. With this command | had a
second attack Of pride. Starting
as a galley helper on the Bessie
B, here I'd landed as skipper of
a British destroyer. | hoped the
war would last long enough for
the TdrneH to see action.
The war was lasting. News
came that the Triumph had been
torpedoed in the Dardanelles by a
U-boat. But no orders came. Then
the Majestic went down, following
the Triumph. Eight British ships
were to help the Italian feet in
the Adriatic. keeping a safe mar
gin over the Austrian navy. Ger
many began renewed U-boat ac-
tivities in the Mediterranean, and
the Admiralty withdrew several
battleships and sent destroyers
instead TO aid British and French
forces. The British battleships had
been anchored at Cape Helles,
open to sub attacks and in
their place mine sweepers and
destroyers were sent, into the
mouth of the Dardanelles. to har-
rass the Turks and U-boats Sup
ply ships dropped back to Alex.
andria and Mudros, from which
came small craft to supply Gen.
eral Hamilton's land forces by
means Of oarges under destroyer
convoy
Among this convoy was the
TarneH, working usually at night
One night. returning from convoy
ing a barge. my lookout spotted
a small craft four points off the
starboard bow. I at once altered
course, turned on our searchlight
and saw U-boat closing It's
hatch to submerge. My gunnery
officer placed two shots, but as
we swung to port abruptly. a tor
pedo passed our bow at 20 yards
to gtarboard. Several more shots