“I was awakened about 6:15 by the increase of our speed, and, thinking
it was nothing more than just a slight spurt to take up our day patrol
position, I lay quiet. However, about ten minutes later I felt the
engines going full speed astern, so, guessing at once that something
out of the ordinary was happening, I sat up, and, opening my scuttle,
looked out. Conceive the jump I gave when I saw the _Aboukir_, about
half a mile away, heeling over to port so that the starboard copper
plates were plainly visible glistening red in the sun. I could also see
considerable commotion on board her, and one of her starboard sea boats
was lowered half-way, but seemed to have stuck there.
“While I watched she seemed to heel over still more, so I leapt from my
bunk, and, running into the next cabin, I found —— jumping out of his
bunk, and together we ran up on to the quarterdeck. From there we could
see that in the short time we had taken getting up on deck she turned
over much more, and was down by the head, and while we watched we could
see the sun shining on pink, naked men walking down her sides inch by
inch as she heeled over, some standing, others sitting down and sliding
into the water, which was soon dotted with heads. All this time we were
hard at it lowering boats.
“Both the sea-boats had gone, manned by nucleus crews, and Lieutenant
——’s voice could be heard as he directed the hands working the main
derrick, which was hoisting up the launch—a boat capable of holding
two or three hundred men. Other men under the direction of another
lieutenant were busily throwing overboard every bit of wood that they
could find for the swimming men to clutch—an act which materially aided
in our escape afterward. I then ran along to the sick-bay and ordered
the stewards to get hot blankets and coffee ready, and went below to
get into some clothes.
“THE SHIP LIFTED, QUIVERING ALL OVER”
“I had only been in my cabin about a minute when there was a terrific
crash, and the ship lifted up, quivering all over. A second or two
later another and duller crash, and a great cloud of smoke, followed by
a torrent of water, came pouring in through my open scuttle. The noise
for a second or two was deafening; everything seemed to be breaking,
and somewhere or other I could hear dishes and glass being crashed to
pieces on the deck, and, in addition, all the lights in the ship went
out. I ran out of my cabin and along to the first ladder, the aft deck
being in darkness and full of smoke; conceive my dismay when I found
that it had fallen down.”
However, he found another ladder, farther on. On the deck was worse
confusion than before. There was nothing left to do but make escape in
the shortest possible order. He climbed down into the sea.
“The first piece I clung to had sharp edges which hurt, so I left
that and swam to a table floating near. Then another man came up and
climbed on to my table, so I left it to him and struck out for a large
spar which I caught sight of some little distance off. This afforded a
very comfortable hold, and I lay over it, kicking gently with my legs
to keep them warm, and I looked about me. Both the _Aboukir_ and the
_Hogue_ had gone, and the _Cressy_ was in front of me, about a quarter
of a mile away. Then she began to fire her guns, and, hearing the
shells going over my head, I looked behind, and there, about 300 yards
off, I saw the periscope of a submarine.
“For some time the firing continued, several of the shells bursting
most unpleasantly near, and then the men on the _Cressy_ started
cheering, and I heard after that they were unanimously of the
opinion—true or not, I don’t know—that they had sunk one of the
submarines. However, the firing continued for some time, till there was
a sudden explosion, and a great column of smoke, black as ink, flew
up as high as the _Cressy’s_ funnels, while she heeled over about ten
degrees. Nothing much further seemed to happen, however, and, looking
about me, I caught sight of —— hanging on to a large fender of twigs,
which kept revolving and ducking him under, so, calling to him, I
started to push my spar toward him till I got near enough, and then,
giving it a vigorous shove, pushed it alongside him and swam after it.
“The two of us clung to that for some time, till the sound of an
explosion made us look round to see the spray and smoke disappearing,
and as we watched another torpedo struck, and the _Cressy_ heeled right
over and almost entirely disappeared in a very short space of time, the
last few feet of ‘island,’ however, taking a very long time to go. Soon
after this I realized the wonderful fact that as the _Hogue_ sank she
must have righted herself, for the picket boat and steam pinnace had in
some miraculous way floated clear quite undamaged, though half full of
water, and were now about one hundred yards from us. Turning the spar
so that it lay pointing toward the boats, and slipping the fingers of
my left hand into a notch that seemed made for the purpose, I turned on
my side and started to tow the spar toward the boats.
“These were soon reached, and we found that some four or five people
had already boarded them. With their help we scrambled on board, having
been in the water about an hour and a quarter. After this there is not
much to tell. The _Flora_ hove in sight when we had been in the boat
about an hour, followed by the _Titan_, and in an hour more we naked,
shivering mortals were all taken off to the former.”