LAND AND WATER 
January 30, 1915. 
Seeing that the Carnarvon, Kent and Glasgow couldn't 
keep up -we went on 24 knots, and at five minutes to one we 
opened fire on the sternmost light cruiser. The Scharnhorst 
men, seeing that to run away was hopeless, turned and en- 
gaged us, and the three light cruisers (enenaies) made away 
pursued by the Kent, Cornwall and Glasgow. 
It wa3 then like this : — 
%^. 
?^>..^ ^^ Cruisers ruiuun^ away 
-^^ ;^ 
\.^ 
.\ 
,/ 
fnchase 
%. (^Cornwall 
d Bristol 
When we started opening fire 1 saw no more as I had to 
go down inio the turret, but this is roughly wlsat happened. 
The German ships' largest guns were 8.2in., while we had 
12in., and it was therefore up to us to keep omt of their 
penetrative range and torpedo range, and sink them with 
gun fire. We found soon that w© were on slightly diverging 
courses; the Germans seeing tliis turned to etarboard in the 
hope of getting away, but wo also altered starboard and came 
np with them firing the whole time, viz. : — 
V 
Course s^berecT 
6y £n emy. 
Coarse st*eered 
by British. 
We then found the smoke was getting in our way, so w* 
altered, viz. : — 
'I 
I 
I 
Coarse \ 
stkeredbyx 
XrlUsk \ 
--> 
Coarse sheered 
ByEnezny 
*nd got the other side of the enemy. Shortly after this th<s 
Scharjihorst iiink (3.55 p.m., after we had been in action two 
bours). We were then concentrating on the Gneisenau, the 
.\chani7iorst having slowly listed to port and then turned 
bottom up, and the propellers were seen still going round. 
The Gneisenau fought on very gallantly, when at G.12 p.m. she 
listed to port and slowly dived down. 
Now to go back to what I did— the whole of the time I 
was superintending the loading in the turret. Several things 
broke down, but we soon got them into action again. It 
was rather awful, and I was in a bit of a funk as I couldn't 
see what was happening, and you quit© distinctly heard the 
screech of their shells, and on© quite early made the whole 
rock by hitting somewhere near. They let us know when 
they could about how the action was going. Of course, I never 
saw the Scharnhorst sunk, but after th© " ceas© fir© " had gone 
I looked through the telescope and saw the Gneisenau heel 
over and dive. 
Now came th© aw-ful part. The Inflexible, Carnarion, 
and ourselves hurried up to where she had disappeared, shown 
by slightly discoloured water, and on coming up close saw 
a good amount of wreckage with men clinging to it. Never 
shall I forget it — they were mostly calling out, and it sounded 
like a wail to us. We all lowered boats as quickly as 
possible, and picked up as many as possible, but heaps must 
have sunk as the water was 40 degs., and they were all numb. 
It was awful being on th© ship, because when all th© boats 
were away they kept floating past, some swimming, some un- 
conscious ju.st beneath th© water. We lowered people dowTi 
on bow lines, and hauled them up the ship's side — some of 
them were quite dead when they cam© in. Altogether this 
ship saved about 115, of which 14 were dead. Th© Inflexible 
saved about 70, and the Carnarvon a few. As regards the 
enemy's light cruisers, the Cornwall and Glasgow sunk the 
Leipzig, and the Kent the Nurnberg. The Dresden, we sup- 
pose, got away. 
As regards our damage, eighteen shells hit us, doing 
various damage. Of these I will name one or two of the 
most important : — (1) Entered wai-droom, burst, went through! 
deck beneath, absolutely WTecked wardroom, nothing left 
■whole except steel walls, which were riddled with splinters. 
(2) Entered through upper deck and burst between wardroom 
pantry and my cabin, wrecked pantiy, large splinters entered 
my cabin, wrecked bunk, set fire to bedclothes, and wrecked 
drawers under bunk, mad© splinter holes in walls (the hose 
was then turned on my cabin, wetting most of my clothes which 
weren't burnt or riddled). (3) Entered starboard side, went 
through two decks and entered Admiral's pantry without 
bursting. It is certainly miraculous that we had no casual- 
ties, except the Commander slightly wounded. TUe Inflexible, 
which was only hit three times, had on© killed and three 
wounded, the Kent about seven killed and six wounded, and 
I don't know about the others. 
I daresay you have noticed that I haven't mentioned 
nbout the Bristol. She luckily couldn't raise steam in time, and 
eo came out later with the Macedonia, and was able to capture 
or sink the enemy's merchantmen and colliers. I told you 
that we had 101 saved on board. Seven of these are officerg, 
and the funny pai't is that I know two of them, and have met 
tlieni several times when I dined on tlie Gneisenau in China • 
(the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were in China when I was 
there). However, th© fellow I liked best, who was in the 
Gneisenau, I qm afraid was drowned. 
The weather during the action was quite calm. 
At Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, on February 8, at 3.30, 
Mr. Hilaire Belloc will give an illustrated lecture entitled 
" The Progi-ess of the War." 
At Devonshire Park, Eastbourne, on February 4, at 3.30, 
Mr. F. T. Jane will give an illustrated lecture on " What the 
Navy is Really Doing in this War." 
Mr. HiLAinB Belloc will lecture on " Strategy, Numbers and 
Mat-ei-ial," ,at Queen's Hall on the afternoon of Tuesday, 9th February^ 
His next evening lecture there is on Wednesday, February 17th. 
LOOKING BACKWARDS. 
Readers of the gpecial articles appearing in this Joarnal 
on " The War by Land and Water " will doubtless 
wish lo retain in correct rotation this remarkable series 
of articles by HILAIRE BELLOC and FRED T. JANE. 
We have, therefore, prepared special cloth binders to hold 
the first thi.-teen numbers, at a cost of Is. 6d. each. 
Or we will supply the thirteen numbers BOUND complete, 
for 6s. 6d. 
Owing to the big demand for back numbers aheady 
received we have had lo reprint some of the earlier 
numbers. Same can now be supplied at 6d, per copy. 
Order now from your Newsagent, Bookstall, or direct 
from the Publishers, 
"LAND AND WATER," 
CENTRAL HOUSE. KINGSWAY. LONDON. 
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