Chapter I: Front Matter

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

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