Evening star., 1940-10-27
Two Wars al Sea Fail
To Daunt Skipper
Surviving Sinkings
Ships Amateur Gun
Crew Accounts for At
Least One Submarine
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
BALTIMORE. Oct. 26.-Slight.
quiet Capt. William Herbert Har-
land doesn't look like a man who
could survive two submarine at
tacks. a magnetic mine. an airplane
bombing and two severe wounds in
two wars.
But the 135-pound Englshman-
his weight now augmented by the
sparkling medal of the Order of
the British Empire-has been
weathering such hazards for 25
years.
When. one day last month, he
pulled his freighter through an
attack by a German bombing plane,
it was almost like old stuff and
he handled the situation with the
aplomb which has long made the
folks back in Redcar. Yorkshire
proud of their scrappy. 48-year- old
fellow toWnsman.
Escapes Begin Early.
Capt. Harland's game OF tag with
death began, after his boyhood as
a marine cadet, in the British
infantry in France during the
World War. At the second battle
of Ypres Harland, then %, received
a knee wound. He'd no sooner re-
turned to action than he stopped
bullet that permanently shortened
his left arm 3 inches.
A lot of men would have gone
home after receiving such an injury.
Harland joined the naval auxiliary
as a Junior officer. He was aboard
the British munitions freighter John
Henry Barry when German tor
pedo sank her in the Mediterranean
in March. 1918 The commander
and four others were lost. but Har-
land got away in a lifeboat and
was picked up by destroyer
The present war found him soon
after its start in the front line
on the steamship Rockpool, 300 miles
west of Ireland.
1T was October 19, 1899. at l2:45
pm he relates laconically, when
a submarine attacked off the port
beam with a torpedo that passed our
stern.
Then the submarine circled under
water and came up in the rays of
the sun and opened fire with a Al
deck gun at about three quarters of
a mile. A shell passed over the
bridge and hit about 200 yards on
our portSide.'
A hit almost certainly would have
doomed the vessel, which was loaded
with $3.50 tons of iron ore from
Wabanne, Newfoundland.
Our amateur gun crew closed on
our deck gun and commenced TO
return the fire. while we zig Jagged
the ship according to the falls of the
shells.
The battle went on for two hours:
we fired l3 shells and got three
hits. The German fired between
70 and 80 and never hit us once.
AT quarter of three I increased
my distance from him to 312 miles,
put up a smoke screen and left him
in a sinking condition. We later
learned British destroyer rescued
part of his crew"
Capt. Harland beams as he men,
tions that amateur gun crew:
1T consisted of the steward, cook,
apprentice boy, mess room boy, two
able seamen, deck boy, and an ordi-
nary seaman, under the charge of
the third mate.
None had ever received gunnery
training prior to that voyage-all
were volunteers. They didn't waste
any shots"
Rewarded by Decoration.
That brought Capt Harland the
order of the British Empire.
He took most of the Rockpool's
crew to a new ship-the ill-fated
S. S. Hawnby. Last April 20. the
Hawnby struck magnetic mine
southeast of England" and I'VE all
got out of the ship safely in life
boats and were picked up by a naval
pinnance (motor launch)."
They put him in command of an
other freighter, and just for varia-
ton, Capt. Harland observes, I'VE got
a taste of Nazi bombers"
1T was September sand it's not
wise to mention our ships name
we've got to 60 back.
I'm a northwesterly gale, about 6
a am., the ship was rolling heavily.
The wind blew the cover off our
flag-locker.
THE chief officer and myself re-
laxed our lookout for submarines
to collect our flags before they blew
over the side
while we were picking them up,
we heard machine-gun fire. Bullets
were striking the plates all around
us.
"At 200 miles west of Ireland I
did not expect aerial attack, so 1
looked for an audacious submarine
on the surface.
In the few seconds I vaS look.