The Navy Everywhere (1919)

- .in:;hi-".'-'-i:~']yiî'^ h-':-" ' i'' .-:j\.i'":^>- ;!!" :.,;,..,, :'.....;'lif. lllr; THE NAVY EVERYWHERE — — £r THE SAME AUTHOR THE NAVY IN MESOPOTAMIA 1914 to 1917 Crown 2,vo. Maps. 3/6 net. "This is, indeed, an excellent little book, which can safely be recom- mended to the notice of all, for the reader will find instruction, entertain- ment, and even amusement in the bill of fare provided by it." The Field. " Conrad Cato. has served through the thick of the arduous work on the Tigris, and adds to the personal knowledge of a very keen observer a rare gift of vivid description and a happy knack of fastening upon salient points which is given to very few." The Globe. THE Navy Everywhere BY CONRAD GATO ADTHOR OF "THE NAVY IN Mesopotamia" PUBLISHED BY EPDUTTON&COMPANY. 68lfIfTHAVENUE NEV/-YORtC.r^ ESTABLISHED 185Z, First published c <- f :". 19>9 c « c t t U V c PBpra^D IN Qbeat Britain — PREFACE The welcome accorded to the " Navy in Mesopo- tamia " has tempted me to ofl'er to the pubhc another book on naval work in foreign waters. The title I have chosen must not be taken to imply that I have attempted to describe the activities of the British Navy in every part of the world where they have been in progress. I have done no more than collect a few samples of naval operations in those theatres of war whichfare sufficiently remote to have escaped almost entirely the notice of the war corre- spondents of the Press. These samples exclude altogether the ordinary routine work of the Navy the watching for the German High Seas Fleet, the hunting and destroying of enemy submarines, the >- sweeping up of mines, the patrolling of many thousand square miles of sea to maintain a blockade of the D3 enemy's coast, the convoying of merchant ships, ^ and the transporting of the Army to any part of the ?n world it happened to fancy. All these tasks are part =3 of the never-ending toil which falls to the lot of the ^ Navy in war-time, and, though the successful per- formance of them is the first essential of our national existence, no literary eflort should be needed to impress this fact on the minds of the British public. I have chosen, therefore, to confine myself to those naval performances which are quite outside the ordinary sphere, and about which the public^ have received comparatively little information. The accounts I have given of these performances are based upon official reports, and, in the case of V 345430 vi PREFACE those scenes and incidents of which I was not myself an eye-witness, I am indebted for descriptive details to various officers who took part in them, and to whom I wish to express my cordial thanks. With their assistance I hope I may have succeeded in presenting a readable reminder to the public that the Navy during the war was engaged on many and diverse tasks, altogether apart from that of securing to the people of these islands their daily bread. Conrad Cato. London, May 1919. CONTENTS THE NAVY IN EAST AFRICA CHAPTER PAGE I. The White Flag at Dar-es-Salaam . 3 " " II. Bottling up the Konisgberg . 18 " " III. Destruction of the Konigsberg . 31 IV. An Airman's Adventures . 42 THE NAVY IN THE CAMEROONS " " V. The Story of King Bell . .61 VI. Some Incidents of the Earlier Operations . .71 VII. Amphibious Operations ... 86 THE NAVY IN SERBIA ' VIII. The "Terror of the Danube . 103 IX. The Fall of Belgrade . .110 X. The Great Retreat . 123 vii viii CONTENTS THE FIRST KITE-BALLOON SHIP CHAPTER PAGE " " XL H.M.S. Manica AT Gallipoli . 141 XII. H.M.S. "Manica" in East Africa. 150 THE NAVY IN THE PERSIAN GULF XIII. The Tangistani Raids . 173 THE NAVY IN ROmiANIA XIV. The Battle near Topalul . 189 XV. The Retreat FROM THE DoBRUDSHA . 206 XVI. The Battle of Vizirul . .220 THE ADEN PATROL XVII. An Outpost of Empire in Somaliland 237 • XVIII. Scotching the Wolf's Cub . 263 THE RED SEA PATROL XIX. The Taking of Salif . .279 LIST OF MAPS PAGE The Coast of East Africa ... 3 DaR-ES-SaLAAM HA.RBOUR .... 5 Delta of the Rufigi River ... 19 Cameroons Coast ..... 61 Serbia ....... 103 Bagamoyo : Sketch shovVIng the Landing Operations 157 Sketch Map of Bushire Islai^d , .181 The Dobrudsha . , . 189 somaliland 239 Coast of Arabia 281 IZ THE NAVY IN EAST AFRICA CHAPTER I THE WHITE FLAG AT DAR-ES-SALAAM The harbour of Dar-es-Salaam lies somewhere near the middle of the coast of what was once known as German East Africa—about a hundred miles north of the Ruiigi River, where the Konigsberg was found. When war broke out between England and Germany, the Governor of Dar-es-Salaam, probably acting upon instructions, had a floating dock towed to the entrance of the harbour, and there sunk, in order to block the channel. Whether or not it actually did block the channel was not decided at the time, but the intention of it was obvious, and the question that arose was, why did not the Germans take their ships out of the harbour first before they blocked, or attempted to block, the fairway ? There were four or five ships inside, and any one of them could have been of great service as a tender to a German raider, such as the Konigsberg, but yet they were all left inside when the obstruction was sunk at the harbour entrance. Of course it might be put down as one of Germany's blunders, but, on the other hand, it might be possible for those ships to circumvent the obstruction, or again, the sunken dock might be refloated to allow them to pass out when required. Dar-es-Salaam was ostensibly an undefended port at the beginning of the war, and when 1 1. M.S. Astrêa called there on 8th August 1914 she took it upon herself to treat the place as such. She destroyed 3 4 THE NAVY IN EAST AFRICA the wireless installation as a necessary precaution, and then opened negotiations with the governor. In return for his immunity from hostile operations he made a pledge that the sunken dock should not be raised, that all vessels in the harbour should be regarded as British prizes, and that no attempt should be made to take any of them out to sea. In those days we regarded the pledge of a German as being at least of some value, though we may have been a little hazy as to how much value we ought to put on it. A few weeks later the Pegasus, lying up for repairs in Zanzibar Harbour, was destroyed by the Konigs- BERG, and it was ascertained for a fact that this German raider had been using Dar-es-Salaam Harbour. This completely changed the situation, for it showed that a ship could get in and out of the harbour in spite of the obstruction, and, this being the case, it was more than likely that our prizes there would make their escape sooner or later, and one or more of them would take coal and provisions to the raider. So on 21st October the Chatham called at Dar-es-Salaam to see what was going on. There were two ships lying behind the thick belt of palm trees, their masts visible to the Chatham, who thought at first that they were the KoNiGSBERG and one of her consorts. So she took the range, and fired two or three shells, taking care not to hit the to^^^l. The Senior Naval Otticer, however, soon discovered that he had been mistaken as to the identity of the shij)s, and, having insisted upon the removal of their wireless telegraphy aerials, he left them to their own devices, for he had more important work on hand. Nine days later he found the KoNiGSBERG licrself, hiding up the Ruligi River. Dar-es-Salaam was left alone for over a month, but the Senior Naval OHicer was never satisfied that the obstruction really blocked the fairway, and he THE WHITE FLAG AT DAR-ES-SALAAIM 5 had even less faith in the pledge of the governor that the ships would not try to escape. On 28th November H.M.S. Fox and Goliath, with two small vessels in company, anchored off Makatumbe Island, which lies a few miles out to sea from Dar- es-Salaam, and hoisted the international signal to 6 THE NAVY IN EAST AFRICA the people ashore to send off a boat. It must be explained that the situation had changed completely, since those early war days, when the Astrâ paid her visit there. The exploits of the Konigsberg had clearly indicated that East Africa was not to be excluded from the war zone, whatever might be the pledges of the local governors ; and then came our military disaster at Tanga, when we altogether underestimated the resistance likely to be offered by the enemv, with the result that we came off with 800 casualties—and some valuable experience. Moreover, the Navy had been busy in the Rufigi River, bottling up the Konigsberg, so that when they arrived ofl' Dar-cs-Salaam they were there for busi- ness, and in no mood for anything else. At the same time it must be remembered that Dar-es-Salaam purported to be an undefended harbour, and was entitled to be treated as such, until there was evidence of hostile intentions on the part of its inhabitants.

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