[CHAPTER XVI]
THE STORY OF THE "SOUTHLAND"
The transport of the Second Australian Division from Egypt to Gallipoli was not to pass without at least one striking incident, which proved that the Australian army, if without traditions of its own, is able at a moment's notice to live up to the finest traditions of the soldiers of the British race. There is probably no Australian who has not been made familiar with the history of the Birkenhead, and it fell to the lot of one battalion of the Second Division to show that "To stand and be still in the Birkenhead Drill" is not too tough a thing for the untried troops of the south.
This battalion was the 21st, a Victorian Battalion mainly composed of farmers' sons from the Wimmera district; and it left Egypt on the last Monday in August on board the transport Southland in charge of Colonel Linton. The transport had also on board General Legge, the officer in command of the Second Division, and his staff—the brains of the Second Division, as one of the men told me. And, when she left Egypt, it was freely prophesied that she would be the object of attack by the submarines that were at that time very busy in the Ægean Sea.
No precaution was omitted on the voyage. The men were daily paraded by their Colonel (Colonel Hutchinson) and instructed in boat and lifebelt drill. All went well till Thursday morning, just after the early exercises. It was a beautiful morning, and the deck was crowded with men, smoking and chatting, and some of them cleaning their equipment in readiness for the imminent landing.
Suddenly a cry was heard, "God, is that a torpedo?"
No one who saw the deadly thing ripping through the water had any doubt of it. A moment later there was a dull clanging roar, and a hole nearly thirty feet in diameter was blown in the side, two holds being destroyed. In a second the siren was blowing the signal to abandon ship, and the Australians, conforming to the drill regulations, lined up on deck as if on parade.
The ship's officers kept magnificently cool. The captain, by a magnificent piece of navigation, contrived to avoid a second torpedo which if it had struck the Southland would undoubtedly have sunk the vessel in a couple of minutes. The engineer closed the bulkheads and a number of open portholes, and to him also must be ascribed the credit of having prevented the vessel from sinking.