Soon after my boat had gone away, having on board the Captain, Commander, captain of marines, and officers of turrets, a collier came alongside and we commenced coaling. My boat being duty steamboat (known in the vernacular as D.S.B.), I did not have to assist in coaling, and as soon as she returned from the cruiser “——,” I was sent away in her with dispatches for the Flagship. One of my bowmen did not turn up when the boat’s crew was piped, and when he eventually appeared the silly fool went and fell into the ditch! He was soon pulled out, however, and we started down the line. On the horizon I could see the mouth of the Dardanelles and one or two ships firing at intervals. As we passed down the Fleet I noticed one ship with half her funnel-casing blown off and another with a bit of her stern-walk missing, which showed we didn’t always get it all our own way with the Turk.
After I had delivered my dispatches I returned to the ship and was promptly sent away again to take the gunner to the store-ship Fauvette to get some gunnery instruments. By this time the sea was very big for a small steamboat, and was almost dead on the beam. We were rolling nearly 60° each side, and constantly shipping seas, which poured down the stump of the broken funnel and nearly put the furnace out. The store-ship was a good two miles away, and it took us nearly half-an-hour to reach her. At last we got within about twenty yards of her, and I ran my boat down the leeside, looking for a ladder or gangway; seeing none, I ran under her stern and went alongside to windward of her. Here the seas were enormous, and as we rose on a huge wave the gunner leaped for the ladder, missed his footing, hung on for a second, and then dropped into the sea between the boat and the ship’s side. We managed to haul him out at once, but it was a bit of luck that the boat was not carried in towards the ship’s side by a wave, as it would most certainly have crushed, and probably killed him. Once he was safe on board again I hailed the ship and asked them to put out a ladder on the leeside, as I could see it was much too dangerous work going alongside to windward, and I didn’t care to risk it again. Eventually the gunner’s mission was safely accomplished, and we returned to our own ship without further incident.
After lunch I had to get my boat coaled and watered, and at about 5 p.m. the cruiser with our officers on board came back to her moorings, and I was sent to bring them off to our ship again. Then at 6.30. I had to take the Torpedo Lieutenant and the gunner (T.) over to H.M.S. “——,” and to wait an hour for them, lying off in the dark with a big sea running. Thank goodness I am a good sailor—don’t know what it is to be sea-sick; but anyone less fortunate in their interior economy would have had an uncommonly miserable time! As it was I was only rather cold, very hungry, and very bored. At last they reembarked and I returned on board and got my dinner, which I was much in need of.
That night we put to sea, and at 2 on the following morning “Action” sounded—the great landing at Gallipoli had begun. All water-tight doors were hastily closed and all electric light cut off.
We had to go up on deck to get to the Fore T.S., and away to the right could be seen the first faint streaks of dawn, and the land showing very faintly against the sky.
Down in the Fore T.S. we worked by candlelight, eagerly awaiting the sunrise when the great bombardment would begin.
•••••••
Of that bombardment he spoke but little, and wrote not at all. I think he felt it too big a thing to tackle.
The epic of the Gallipoli landings will, let us hope, one day be written by a pen worthy to depict that immortal tale of heroism, but I doubt if the whole truth can ever be spoken or written. There are some things of which men cannot and will not speak. A word, a sentence here and there, may lift for a moment a corner of the veil, but only those who went through that inferno will ever fully realise its horror.
Of my boy’s own small part in it all I know a little—but only a very little. The ship was concerned in the landing at—— Beach, and at 10 o’clock one morning he was sent away in his boat to fetch the wounded from the beach in question. Of course other midshipmen were doing the same thing in other boats.