The _Queen Elizabeth_ was ordered back to the Dardanelles and remained
there until July 26. Through the telescope we saw many demolished
Turkish forts and big black holes where clusters of houses and groves
had been.
On July 26 we sailed for Gibraltar. We left there on August 1 and
sailed for the North Sea and went in harbor to give the ship a thorough
overhauling. From August 10 to Sept. 5 we were cruising around the
North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean in search of the German fleet. This
sort of life, after the excitement of battle grew wearisome to every
one on board. Thoughts of home and family came to me. There had been
no chance to write or to have our letters mailed. The only mail boat
leaving the _Queen Elizabeth_ was sunk. I told the officer in charge
that I was an American.
After hearing my story he sent a message to the Admiralty and they
ordered my discharge. I was sent to Portsmouth Naval Branch to receive
my final papers. On obtaining these I thought I was free; but I was
arrested for having failed to register as an alien when I first landed
in Liverpool.
I was brought before a magistrate and remanded for a week. Acting on
advice I wrote to the American Consul at London. The Consul replied
that he had been looking for me since June, and he requested the
magistrate to release me so that I could be sent back to the United
States. The letter to the magistrate took fifteen minutes to read in
court. It stated that the whole army had been looking for me, at the
instigation of my parents, through the Secretary of State at Washington.
The magistrate discharged me at once, regretting my imprisonment for a
week and stating that it was no disgrace. I left Portsmouth the next
day, Sept. 25, for Liverpool but had to stop over in London for several
hours, awaiting the fast mail train. It was shortly after the last
Zeppelin raid and, being in uniform, I was allowed to pass the lines,
to look at the effects of the bombs. Many houses were wrecked, streets
torn up and soldiers were searching the ruins for the missing. Now and
then they recovered a body, usually that of a woman or a child. The
official death list reported 150 killed. I saw a cartoon reprinted from
a German paper, picturing the people of London kneeling in prayer in
their cellars during and after a Zeppelin raid. But the fact is that
the London police had their hands full keeping the people from rushing
out of their houses to get a glimpse of the raider.
I reached Liverpool that night and the day following I signed for my
passage on the steamship _Minian_, sailing for Boston Oct. 9. While
in Liverpool I was offered a position in a munition factory as a gun
tester at a salary of four pounds per week, but I refused the offer
because I had secured my discharge from the British Navy for the
purpose of going home.
"BIG-BANG"--STORY OF AN AMERICAN ADVENTURER
_A Tale of the Great Trench Mortars_
_Told by C. P. Thompson_
"Big-Bang" was Tommy's name for one of our pioneer trench mortars,
invented and operated by a man named X----. The author met X---- in
a café not far from the front, and heard from him the details of
the story that is here set down. "So far as I am aware," he writes,
"the tale is perfectly true. I had it confirmed by the men of the
R. E. company to which X---- was attached." Recorded in the _Wide
World_.