While this was going on the Germans had fired another torpedo at
us, but it missed and went astern. Meanwhile several men had swum
alongside, and we helped them aboard, rubbed them down, pumped water
out of them, and wrapping them in blankets gave them hot tea. One of
those rescued was a midshipman. He was taken to the sick bay and after
drinking his tea, he turned to his commander and said:
"Why shouldn't we get into these cots, sir?"
"Quite right, sonny, jump in." He hadn't been there long when we were
struck again. The plucky boy jumped out and said, "Look here, sir, I'm
off," and away he went and jumped over the ship's side, and was picked
up by a boat some half-an-hour later.
It was this torpedo that settled our fate.
I saw her approaching about 400 yards distant, and she entered the
ship's side just abaft of the fore-bridge and entered No. 5 boiler
room. No doubt many poor fellows were killed outright. The ship seemed
to rise out of the water, settled back and at once listed badly and
began to turn turtle.
There was no panic whatever. The officers supervised the collecting
of all woodwork, etc., and the order was then given, "Every man for
himself."
Our middies were awfully brave and busily set to work to construct a
small raft with chairs and a boxing dummy. Staff-Surgeon Sawdy came up
to me, after Dr. Martin had procured me a lifebuoy, and said, "Shall I
come with you, Padre?" He is a west-country man and you may guess how
readily I said "Yes."
After a time we had to kneel on the deck and hang on to the side. It
was just before this that I slipped off my coat and shoes. When the
ship was at an angle of 75 to 80 degrees, we stepped over the port side
on to a ledge, and hung on to the chains. A wave caught us and knocked
us against the side a bit, but not enough to injure us, but with the
next the ship turned over.
I retained my hold of the chain and the lifebuoy, and when I felt the
ship steady I let go the chain, and after what seemed a very long
time came to the surface. Dr. Sawdy had also retained his hold of the
lifebuoy and we appeared together in the water.
You may not realize how we could do it, but we actually laughed. He
complained of the length of time below water (I had been keeping him
down), and to suddenly pop up together, was really funny. We at once
struck out with our feet (as I can't swim) and succeeded in getting
away from the ship.
We were soon joined by others, and six of us stuck to our lifebuoys and
a plank of wood which came floating by. After about ten minutes I began
to shake badly and my teeth were chattering.
It was a horrible feeling, and I told the doctor I couldn't hang on
much longer, but he told me--good fellow that he is--to hang on, and
after a while the shivering passed off, but a sort of numbness set
in and occasionally we had cramps. To keep the circulation going we
rubbed each other's legs, or kicked about a bit.