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                            FROM DARTMOUTH
                          TO THE DARDANELLES




SOLDIERS’ TALES OF THE GREAT WAR

Each volume cr. 8vo, cloth. 3_s._ 6_d._ net.


 I. WITH MY REGIMENT. By “PLATOON COMMANDER.”

 II. DIXMUDE. The Epic of the French Marines. Oct.-Nov. 1914. By
 CHARLES LE GOFFIC.

  _Illustrated_

 III. IN THE FIELD (1914-15). The Impressions of an Officer of Light
 Cavalry.

 IV. UNCENSORED LETTERS FROM THE DARDANELLES. Notes of a French Army
 Doctor.

  _Illustrated_

 V. PRISONER OF WAR. By ANDRÉ WARNOD.

  _Illustrated_

 VI. “CONTEMPTIBLE.” By “CASUALTY.”

 VII. ON THE ANZAC TRAIL. By “ANZAC.”

 VIII. IN GERMAN HANDS. By CHARLES HENNEBOIS.


  LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
  21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C.




                            FROM DARTMOUTH
                          TO THE DARDANELLES

                          A MIDSHIPMAN’S LOG


                               EDITED BY
                              HIS MOTHER


                                LONDON

[Illustration: LOGO]

  WILLIAM HEINEMANN




  _First Published June 1916._
  _New Impressions July, September, October 1916._


_London: William Heinemann, 1916._




                              _FOREWORD_


_THE responsibility for the publication of this book lies with me, and
with me alone. I trust that that great “Silent Service,” one of whose
finest traditions is to “do” and not to “talk,” will see in it no
indiscretion._

_To state that these pages make no claim to literary merit seems almost
superfluous, since they are simply a boy’s story of ten months of the
Great War as he saw it. In deference to the said tradition the names
of officers and ships concerned have been suppressed—those of the
midshipmen mentioned are all fictitious._

_The story has been compiled from a narrative written by my son during
a short spell of sick leave in December 1915. Considering that all his
diaries were lost when his ship was sunk, it may at least be considered
a not inconsiderable feat of memory. Originally it was intended only
for private circulation, but many who have read it have urged me
to put it into print; and I have decided to do so in the hope that
their prediction that it would prove of interest to the public may be
justified._

_In so far as was practicable, I have tried to tell the story in my
son’s own words; but it may possibly be argued that at times words
and phrases are such as would not normally be used by a boy of barely
sixteen. To that charge I can only reply that in the main even the
words are his own, and I have faithfully reproduced his ideas and
opinions._

_Those who have come in contact with the boys who left us as children,
and returned to us dowered by their tremendous experiences with
knowledge and insight so far in advance of their years, will find
nothing incongruous in reflections commonly foreign to such extreme
youth. It is one of the logical results of the fiery crucible of War._

_Let it be remembered that these boys have looked Death in the
face—not once only, but many times; and that, like our soldiers in
the trenches—who no longer say of their “pals” “He is dead,” but only
“He has gone west”—they have learned to see in the Great Deliverer not
a horror, not an_ end, _but a mighty and glorious Angel, setting
on the brows of their comrades the crown of immortality; and so when
the call comes they, like Sir Richard Grenville of old, “with a joyful
spirit die.”_

_What would be unnatural is that their stupendous initiation could
leave them only the careless children of a few months back._

_The mobilisation of the Dartmouth Cadets came with a shock of rather
horrified surprise to a certain section of the public, who could not
imagine that boys so young could be of any practical utility in the
grim business of War. There was, indeed, after the tragic loss of
so many of them in the_ Cressy, _the_ Aboukir, _and the
_Hogue, _an outburst of protest in Parliament and the Press. In
the first shock of grief and dismay at the sacrifice of such young
lives, it was perhaps not unnatural; but it argued a limited vision.
Did those who agitated for these Cadets to be removed from the post of
danger forget, or did they never realise, that on every battle-ship
there is a large number of boys, sons of the working classes, whose
service is indispensable?_

_It seemed to me that if my son was too young to be exposed to such
danger, the principle must apply equally to the son of my cook, or my
butcher, or my gardener, whose boys were no less precious to them than
mine was to me._

_In the great band of Brothers who are fighting for their country and
for the triumph of Right and Justice there can be no class distinction
of values. Those who belong to the so-called “privileged classes” can
lay claim only to the privilege of being_ leaders—_first in the
field and foremost at the post of danger. It is the only possible
justification of their existence; and at the post of danger they have
found their claim to priority hotly and gloriously contested by the
splendid heroes of the rank and file._

_Presumably the Navy took our boys because they were needed, and no
one to-day will feel inclined to deny that those Dartmouth Cadets have
abundantly proved their worth._

_For the rest, if there be any merit in this record, the credit lies
with the boy who provided the material from which it has been written:
for any feebleness, inadequacy, or indiscretion the blame must fall on
that imperfect chronicler—_

  _HIS MOTHER_




                     CONTENTS


 CHAP.                                        PAGE

    I DARTMOUTH COLLEGE                          1

   II MANŒUVRES                                 12

  III THE BEGINNING OF THE “REAL THING”         24

   IV WE JOIN OUR SHIP                          34

    V ALARUMS AND EXCURSIONS                    49

   VI WE LEAVE HOME WATERS                      65

  VII FROM EGYPT TO MOMBASA                     88

 VIII THE BOMBARDMENT OF DAR-ES-SALAAM         118

   IX ORDERED TO THE DARDANELLES               130

    X IN ACTION                                140

   XI THE SINKING OF THE SHIP                  152

  XII HOME                                     165




CHAPTER I

DARTMOUTH COLLEGE


MY first term at Dartmouth commenced on the 7th of May 1914—previously
I had, of course, been through the regulation two years at Osborne
College in the Isle of Wight.

Most of my term-mates came down from London by the special cadet train,
and I should have greatly preferred to have travelled with them, but my
home was so far away that I had to do the journey in solitary state,
and when I arrived at Kingswear Station at 9.30 on that beautiful
spring evening, I found myself a belated last comer.

A servant had been sent to meet me, and when he had collected my
luggage we embarked on the _Otter_, one of the steamboats belonging to
the College, which was lying alongside the pontoon. The passage of the
river Dart only took a few minutes, and we landed at Sandquay, where
are situated the engineering shops, in which no small proportion of my
brief time at Dartmouth was destined to be spent. Compared with the
collection of low, one-storied, bungalow-like buildings which comprise
the Osborne premises, the College, standing high upon a hill above
the river, appeared to me a very imposing structure, and pleasantly
suggestive of a distinct advance towards the goal of my ambitions—a
goal destined to be reached so swiftly, and by such unexpected paths,
as I at that moment little dreamed of.

A long flight of stone steps leads up through the grounds from
the workshops, and after climbing these I found myself in the big
entrance-hall of the College, where I was met by a