Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/1/1 - October - December 1914 - Part 8

58
November. 17.18.
being laughed at would (as they do now) come up in
their lifebelts. The rest would go without them or else
would have to go back & get them. By that time every light
in the ship might be out - _^I have seen it taken a good quarter of an
hour to get the men off the decks in the be ordinary
parades with in the daylight.
In the Euripides - I dont know abt. other ships -
when the alarm goes every man comes up with his
lifebelt fixed on. If men sleep abo on deck they do so
on this condition - that they sleep in their proper boat
stations & with their lifebelts under their heads. Je ne
sais pas- but it appeals to me.

Wednesday November 18^th. My birthday. This evening
we saw a strange bird - either a crow or a sea
hawk - keeping station just above our port bow.
Probably we are close to the Maldive Islands.
A lot of silly rumours going round the
ship abt. the German prisoners. One is that a German
prisoner says that the Hohenzollern Prince had to be
tied up to a gun to prevent his jumping overboard.
I don't for an instant believe there is the least
fraction of truth in it - nor does anyone else.
Another yarn is that the prince struck a

59.
November. 18.19.
sentry & was nearly spitted.  I know the origin of
this. The Prince wanted to go to the bath room &
did what German officers are accustomed to do -
walked straight ignored the common private soldier altogether
& nearly walked through him as if he didn't exist.
The sentry was, of course, not there for nonsense
& stopped him until he made a proper request; or by
possibly _^another account the sentry did not understand him & said "no" when
he asked leave. Anyhow there was nothing in the
incident.

Thursday.Nov 19. The British Govt has allowed the German
officers to retain their swords. But as the
Captain was wearing no sword on the day of
the fight he lost his & has none to keep. The Hohenzollern
prince is the only one who brought off a sword
with him. This was taken away today whilst
he was out of his cabin, & also his razor.
He has still a safety razor. His sword is just
a little dirk - the sheath is burnt steel,
blackened & flaking into powder; the leather of the
haft was burnt away & for a moment I
thought (when I saw it) for a moment) that it
must be some ancient Roman relic which had

60.
November. 19. 20. PRE MSZCXYLSM^vL.
been given to him & which he wore instead of
his dirk.

Friday Nov. 20. The 3rd Division turned up today. The
Ibuki could be seen on the horizon at morning.
By lunch the 3^rd division's smoke was visible
astern. By dinner they were passing - Euripides,
as usual, recognisable by her lights - on the our starbd. side.
The Ascanius Afric had found it hard to keep
her place in the 3rd division & so the
Ascanius was ordered to fr go across from the
2nd divⁿ. & take it. She crossed our bows
very close (we were playing a _^cricket match, Australia
v. England, at the time - Australia won on this
occasion - we have now _^each won once.)  Some of
the New Zealanders & the 3rd Divn have gone on,
Hamps (apparently with Ibuki) to save time by coaling or
watering at Aden. A convoy of 30 Indian
transports is to join us there - or meet
or pass us or something.  That wd make abt
70 transports in all.
The Hampshire keeps on changing
her place with the fleet, going up,
dropping back, inspecting, rounding

61.
November. 20.21.
up. - Weather not very hot - perfect sea, &
beautiful sunsets all the way.
Saturday Nov. 21.
On waking up today I found the
3rd division _^abreast on the port side, about 3 miles
away. It ought to have been to starboard
& out of sight ahead.
It turned out that about
4 a.m. this morning the Ascanius had
grazed the Shropshire (her next ahead).
She buckled some of the Shropshire's
plates & carried away some of her davits.
The Shropshire signalled that two men
were overboard & the three ships stopped
- Shropshire, Ascanius & Benalla (next astern).
They lowered boats & for an hour or an
hour & a half searched.  The Hampshire
which turning her searchlights on.\ We came
up with them & turned out of our
course & made to the north of them
to keep out of their way.
The Hampshire turned her sign searchlights
on & for an hour & a half they were stopped.
We caught them up, & were passing. We intercepted

62.
November. 21
two signals: "No men overboard" (although "no"
this may possibly be a mistake for "two"); & one
from Hampshire to one of the ships: "What is your
lifeboat doing upside down?"
So evidently something was happening.
We shall hear later on.
Later - we heard that Ascanius had
a hole 20 ft long in her bows.
All sorts of reports today. One is that
we land at Suez or Port Said to fight the Turks.
Schuler tells me no arrangements have _^ yet been
made for this voyage beyond Suez or Port Said,
& that we definitely stop at Aden.
The Ibuki was scarcely recognisable
as she came up passed us yesterday & today. Instead of
filling half the sky with smoke she was not
smoking more than an ordinary chimney in
a factory - some of our own transports were
smoking more heavily. She must have taken
Cardiff coal at Colombo - it is a perfect
object lesson in the difference between Welsh
steam coal & even such splendid coal as
New Zealand Westport.  Westport is a fine steam coal
because it makes so little ash & the fires scarcely
need cleaning; - but it's smoke -!

63
November. 22.
Sund. Nov 22.  Mother's Birthday-
I saw the German officers coming down to
dinner the other day. The Captain came first -
a very slender very tall young looking chap -
in a white striped flannel suit like a tennis
suit. He has very fair hair, perhaps a little
grey, & a face slightly lined. They dine in
the childrens' saloon just outside the
saloon door near the lift. Armed sentries
are always on the stairs at this time, &
Casey (one of our motor automobile lieutenants) who
speaks german always dines with them.
I should not in the least wonder if
this skipper tries to escape or to take the
ship. Its next to impossible for him to
succeed but he may make a dash for it
in the canal. He is very anxious to see
his men to find out how they are faring.
I shd say it wd be the height of folly to
let him - the one thing is to keep him from
any possibility of communicating with
his men or even knowing where they are.
I dont believe Capt. de Bucy will let them -
he is a very experienced officer.

64.
November. 22.
The men go through their physical drill
every day on the sergeants deck, port starbd side.
Their officers are on the promenade deck,
starbd side, & are allowed an hour of
exercise each afternoon. They are well built but light.
One of their men volunteered to
Stevens (machine gun section 5^th Inf.)
"I can no more sleep. 'Ven I shut my
eyes I hear always - guns - guns -
guns."  Poor beggar. The one thing that
really breaks the skipper up is the thought
of his men.  His eyes filled with tears
when he spoke to Col. Wanliss about them,
and de Bucy told me the same. He asked the
captain of the Emden whether he did not
feel the strain on his nerve of being always
hunted by British cruisers.  He said
"No" - he was surprised he had felt it so
little. The only time, he sd, he broke
down was when he came down from
the bridge & saw his men after the
action.
There was a report which we heard
several times that the reason why the Emden's

65.
November. 22.
flag was not hauled down as soon as she went ashore,
or when the Sydney returned & signalled to her was
that the mainmast to which it was wired was unapproachable.
It was even said that towels, blankets & white cloths
were tied up to parts of the ship forward but were not
seen by the Sydney. _^The flag is sd to have been eventually pulled down
by a man who jumped overboard & so got it.
I have the truth of this from a man _^Casey who has
just been talking of it with the captain of the
Emden. The captain does not say why he did not
haul down his flag. It was not that it was unapproachable
because it was afterwards done reached along the deck. The
captain also said nothing whatever about _^the white flags
supposed to have been hoisted & not seen. His
story is as follows:
He wonders that the Sydney
fired on them the second time, after the Emden had
been beached. "He must have known that we
were helpless," he says. "We could not read the
Sydney's signals because we had lost our code
books. She was 5000 yards away from us - 
she never once came closer. When the Sydney
flag was eventually pulled down it was
pulled down by my own cabin servant - I
had him with me & he went along the deck, which

66.
November. 22.
was very hot in places, & reached the flag. "It was
a plucky action, he says.
At the same time it he must have
He says he expects the Sydney was going to
send off a boat to him. At the same time his flag
was up. The Sydney did not know that she was safe from
his torpedo - & _^probably stood off to 5000 yards for that
very reason. It looks very much as though he was
anxious to keep the German flag still flying & hoped
that we would xxxxxxx take pity on him & omit to
insist. Our peo  At any rate the flag was
there & if you wire a flag to your mast
you must take the consequences. Our
chaps did not know what it meant & were
beyond all question justified in refu taking no
risk.
The Sydney's last salvo killed 20 men. Their
death is due to the push _^reluctance of the Captain _^to haul down the German flag. - He fought
acxxx _^a great fight but it was hardly worth
but and that reluctance was only natural. Still
- there is no special law for the Germans.
The Emden's captain says that his guns
crews got off a salvox in 5 seconds until their
guns became hot.  They had as many as four
[*salv. in
5 es
= 4 in 1
10,000-500.1*]

67.
November. 22.
salvoes in the air together, he thinks. _^He calculates It wd
take 20 seconds for each shot at their extreme
range to reach the Sydney. He says the Emden's
guns started at their extreme range - 10,000 yards.
"We made it 10,000," he says. "If we had made it
9,500 we should have hit her with the first shot."
He saw the Sydney's torpedo - it missed.
He was trying to get within torpedo range all
the time but never managed it. He says he
never got nearer to the Sydney than 5000 yards.
His ship was dirty to start with. He was on the
bridge all the time, I believe. Hohenzollern was in
the torpedo flat.
When asked if he would not have liked
to have seen us he said. "I did not know. I
am sorry.  I expected to find a British cruiser
there guarding the Coco's. I had heard the wireless
of someone saying that he wanted coal. I was
afraid that they would think it was my me calling for
coal. I was 52 miles away from you that
night. If I had got up to you", he said in
answer to a suggestion, "I should have run
up alongside 'her' (indicating the Hampshire
on our port bow) & fired a torpedo - & then in
[*Is he telling
the truth or
trying to mislead?*]