Juno 21, 191 7 
LAND & WATER 
fire. Outside tlie oLlier ships wore waiting for us near Komo 
Island, and we went straif^ht alongside the Trent. Each ship 
cheered us as we jHissed. 
" Tuesday, luly btti, was the day of the first attempt, and 
one of the worst 1 ever had or am likely to have. We were 
at our stations from 3.45 a.m. till 4.43 p.m., and eleven hours 
of that were under iire. Tiie engine room people were not 
relieved tlie wiiole time, and they were down there the whole 
time in a temperature of I32'^-I35'' ! " 
On luly nth the second attack was made, but made in a 
very different inanner'from the first. Once more let us allow 
the same writer to complete the story: 
" We went to General Quarters at 10.40 a.m. and were in- 
side the entrance by ii.4or How well we seemed to know the 
place 1 1 knew exactly where the beastly field guns at the 
mouth would open fire and exactly when they would cease- 
as we pushed in, and so if their shots went over us they would 
land on the opposite bank among their own troops. Very soon 
came the soft whistle of the shell, then again and again — 
but we were nearing the entrance and they turned on the 
Mersey. They hit her twice, wounding two men and knock- 
ing down the after big gun crew — none were hurt however. We 
spotted a boat straight ahead making across the river for dear 
life — they may only have been natives, but we fired at them 
till they leapt ashore and disappeared. 
" Up the river we went. I knew each creek, and almost each 
tree, and as before we blazed into them just before we passed. 
" We left the Mersey at the place where we anchored last 
time in the hope that she would draw the Koenigsberg's fire 
and leave us a free hand. The Koenigshcrg, however, fired one 
salvo a.t lier and then for the rest of the day concentrated 
on us. She was plugging us for seventeen minutes before we 
could return her fire. The salvoes of four were dropping 
closer tiian ever if possible, and afterwards almost every man 
in the shij) found a bit of German shell on board as a souvenir. 
They were everywhere, in the sandbags, on the decks, round 
the engine-room — but not a soul was even scratched ! 
" We went on higher up the river than last time and finally 
anchored just at the top of ' our ' old island. As the after 
gun's crew were securing the stern anchor two shells fell, one 
on either side, within three feet of the side, and drenched the 
quarter-deck. It was a very critical time. If she hit us 
we were probably finished, and she came as near as possible 
without actually touching. I had bet 5s. that she would start, 
with salvoes of four guns, and I won my bet. They did not 
last long, however, once we opened fire. It was a near thing, 
and had to end pretty quickly one way or another. We had 
received orders that she must be destroyed, and the captain, 
the night before, had told all hands assembled on the quarter- 
deck that we had to do it. We intended to go up nearer and 
nearer, and if necessary sight her. Of course we could not have 
gone through it — but there is no doubt that on the nth it was 
either the monitors or the Koenigsberg. 
We iiad no sooner anchored and laid the guns (the chart 
proved to be one mile out in the distance from us to the 
Koenigsberg !) than the aeroplance signalled she was ready 
to spf)t. Our lirst four salvoes, at about one minute interval, 
were all signalled as " Did not observe fall of shot." We 
Came down 400. then another 400 and more to the left. The 
next was spotted as 200 yards over and about 200 to the right. 
The next 150 short and 100 to the left. The necessary orders 
were sent to the guns, and at the seventh salvo we hit with 
one and were just over with the other. We hit eight times in the 
next twelve shots 1 It was frightfully exciting. The Koenigs- 
berg was now firing salvoes of three only. The aeroplane 
signalled all hits were forward, so we came a little left to get her 
amidshi])s. The machine suddenly signalled ' Am hit : com- 
ing down ; send a boat.' And there she was about half way 
between us and the Koenigsberg planing down. As they fell 
they continued to signal our shots, for we, of course, kept firing. 
The aeroplane fell into the water about 150 yards from the 
Mersey and turned a somersault ; one man was thrown clear, 
but the other had a struggle to get free. Finally both got 
away and were swimming for ten minutes before the Mersey's 
motor-boat reached tiiem — beating ours by a short head. They 
were uninjured and as, merry as crickets ! 
" We kept on firing steadily the whole time, as we knew 
we were hitting — about one salvo a minute. The Koenigsberg 
was now firing two guns; it is hard to be certain, as there was 
much to do and a good noise going on. Still within seventeen 
minutes of our oi>ening fire I noticed and logged it down that 
she was firing two. She may have been reduced to that before, 
l)ut she never fired more after. 
" In a very short time there was a big explosion from the 
direction of the Koenigsberg, and from then on she was never 
free from smoke — sometimes more, sometimes less ; at one 
moment belching out clouds of black smoke, then yellow, with 
dull explosions from time to time. We kept on firing regularly 
ourselves, one salvo to the minute — or ptyhaps two salvoes in 
three minutes, but the gun-layers were told to keep cool and 
Value of the Mark 
TTIK out^tanding feature of the past week has been 
the very strong decline in the value of the mark in 
the neutral countries surrounding Germany, h'or 
many months tiie downward movement has been 
continuous, but the recent fall is quite phenomenal. 
Germany uses every endeavour to restore her cn-dit. but 
evidently without success. Neutral exporters look askance 
at German paper, and Germany finds it increasingly difficult 
to pay for the goods she imports without releasing her gold. 
A recent measure aiming at the restoration of German credit 
abroad is the purchase bv the State of all Swedish, Danish 
and Swiss securities held' in Germany. Down to May 25th 
their sale was voluntary, but since that date ithe State has 
exercised powers of compulsory purchase. A Swedish paper 
estimates that the Swedish securities in German hands are 
worth about 8oa,ooo,ooo Kroner — normally about 45 millions 
sterling. 
Rates are for Den- Sweden. Nor- Hoi- Switzer- 
100 Marks. mark. way. land. land. 
, kr. kr. kr. fi. fr. 
Par of exchange 88-88 88-88 88-88 59-26 123-44 
Rates on Mar. 15 56-50 53' 40 55-75 39" 20 , 80 
-„ „ Apl. 12 5r7.5 50-90 5^'5o 37'3o 78-20. 
„ „ • „ 16 53-50 51 52-25 38' 37 78-60 
„ „ May 10 53' 75 5i'3o S^'^o 37' 5^ 7^' ^5. 
„ „ ,', 30 52-60 50 51-90 3»'43 75-00. 
„ „ June 5 51-80, 49-50 50- qo 35-90 74-60 
„ „ „ 12 48-50 46. 48- .^o 33-75 70-25 
Present extent of\ 0/ 
depreciation about i '^^ " 
48"o 
1-0,/ 
4d /o 
43 
■ 4j ,0 
make sure of their aim. There was one enormous explosion 
which shot up twice as high as the Koenigsberg's masts, and the 
resulting smoke was visible from our deck. 
" For some time now we had had no reply from the Koenigs- 
berg. At 12.53 i fancy she fired one gun, but I was not certain, 
She certainly did not fire afterwards. Fine columns of smoke, 
black, white, yellow, and occasionally dull reports rewarded 
us, but we were making no mistake and kept at it. The aero- 
plane was not available, and we had no one to spot for us, re- 
member ; still we could see the K's masts from our foretop and 
the smoke, etc., told its own tale. 
" Another aeroplane turned up, and we now signalled the 
Mersey to pass on up stream and Open fire nearer. 
" We raised our topmast and had a look at the Koenigs- 
berg. She was a fine sight. One mast was leaning over and the 
other was broken at the main-top, and smoke was pouring out 
of the mast as out of a chimney. 'The funnels were gone, and 
she was a mass of smoke and flame from end to end. We had 
done all the firing which had destroyed her. The il/enscy only 
started afterwards. That was part of the plan. Only one ship 
was to fire at a time, and then there could be no possible con- 
fusion in the spotting corrections ; it was a ie^on we learned on 
the Tuesday before ! We started. The Mersey was then to move 
up past her and fire for an hour, and so on. Fortunately it 
was not necessary, and as it turned out would have been im- 
possible. If we had gone on we should probably bL« there now 
When the Mersev passed us she struck a bar about 1,000 yards 
higher up, and after trying to cross in two different places 100 
yards apart, anchored for firing. There was only eight feet! 
of water on the bar and the tide was falhng. If we had got up 
we should have had to wait twelve hours for high tide, and 
the Germans might have annoyed us from the banks ! 
■ " The Mer.'iev fired about twenty salvoes and made several 
hits, and as the aeroplane had signalled ' O.K.' (target tles- 
troyed) we prepared to leave the river. Before we went the 
Gunnery Lieutenant and myself went to the top of the mast 
to get a jjetter view, and I took a photo of the smoke, resting 
the camera on the very top of the topmast ! The Captain came 
up too, and there were the three of us clinging to the lightning 
conductor with' one arm, glasses in the other, and our feet on 
the empty oil drum we had fixed, up there as a crow's nest. 
•■ fust as we were starting back we saw some telegraph poles 
crossing a creek behind us. It was undoubtedly the communica- 
tion used by the German spotters. We let fly with every- 
thing and smashed them up. A pole is not an easy thing to hit 
and I expect the destruction of those two cost the Government 
about £'300 in ammunition. 
" Tvvo tugs were waiting over the bar, and after giving us. a 
cheer took us on tow to help us back to Trent. The Wey- 
mouth, with the.Admiral on board, came round and then passed 
us at speed : all hands lined the ship and, led by the small white 
figure of the Admiral on the bridge, gave us three splendid 
Cheers. It was one of the finest sights 1 have ever seen." 
Arthur Pollen. 
