Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/59/1 - September 1916 - Part 10

100
10
what the supremacy of the
British Navy means to them,
& how much all / allies
depend on our Navy.
The first news ws of
course most misleading.
North told me tt, when /
fleet steamed back, & /
Battle Crenser Sqn made
for the Clyde, they did not
in pleast know what
casualties they own side
had had or the enemy. They
were very much in I dark
except as to what the
actuatl saw; but they
realised to eveng had
come out for some purpose
they think, now, th he had a
number of commercy raider
ready wh he wanted to
smaggle out to sea- from te
Baltie I fancy - & to this raid
 

ins
 

191
was
to
cover their
de
breaknng out) - they knew
enemy had come out
t had be brought to battle.
had stragghed to avou
a batle & finally trokin
homewards in straggting
two threes to escape from
our fleet We considered
we had done something for
we might
wh
pat ourselves
on
back
we were
rate
pleased with ourselves
reath
& only sorry because
the
bad
light had presented
from really smashing them up
Soit we vating a shock
to come wto pora Resyth
& find everyove going about
with long faces & the papers
being sold with news of a naval
 

102
disasted - & find to people wd
not believe you when you
told them to the result ws
really rater good than
otherwise
But back to the Hustralia
I found Crace there in the
ward Room they told ae
to the ship was veytitite
crace, who had bn a youngly
in the Powerful, with a
clark brown pointed beard.
He o the commanded told
me to o shepy ws ver
much as she had beek.
Hyde
had left to besome Captain
of another shep Glent, I am
glad to say, by the R.A.N.
Darby, oldserious Darley,
was still there - but working
as usual, so I dit not
see him.
 

had been taking on at D3
The ship
which has spread
of oad metal
50
ofver one of her dock
-clearly cod
cs
make big
segs explained plen thy whit her
ciould not go to the bottom ofhd ship and burse

fn the magazine
oI suppose
all our ships have bn
making quick changes.
If the german shell only
explades when it sets
deep wh the vitals of
a ship &our shells explode
as soon as they get through
the side or the dick this
explains how it is to
geiman crews suffer far
more than ours - thy
begin to show the nervous
oain as soon asever
we hat them their firig
becomes weld & scattere
rapidly gets worse. But
 

104
if we take sleps
to
tay the same usal
make ferman
shells burst in our
apper decks we ast
expect I came results.
I wonder of they use a
delay action frise of
any sort, sth Ishelldoes
not burst for some fraction
of a second after sticking the
first obstacle
Me time on board ws
up
all too soon - belove
cd see over I ship it a
time to to. W came back
to Edinburgh to London by
the nights trai
It was Saty Sep. 23.
I had to return on the
by & I worked io
Ba
 

105
all that day. I had to
see Smart about fetting
an official thotogaphet
appointed for Hustralia-
an expereenced
cinematogapher who had by
c 1Msopotamcan Exped
appliiet for / job.
About 12.30) that night
we were finishing our work. The
en blinds of room
were all down, & window
screened according to the
precautions exforced under
the Depence of the Reale Ait
my cars cought
a dull
distont crump. - and
crump
a little later
crump!
It sounded
very faueliar
Isdto
Bayley
issttason
Whats that Noise. He
said
Yes, Ive noticed
too several times.
it
However, it seemed to
 

106
be anaccompanied by
other noises - no gun
reports. I could by help
pecturi
thnk
of a long sausage
hanging in the
night over the stran?
or somewhere in the
city, dropsing bont
after boub - but as
nothing else bapped &
we ad hear, ocsacional
traffic in I street I put
it down that the guard on
some Anderground train
was bonging the doors
to - you can bear the
trains in H. Tames Park
Station from the High
Cumessioners office
About half an hour
later, having ticketes
of Souveners.
my collection
for exhibitin
& Basley
 

t
 

107
in Smarts Hushalian
Emmonwealth wendow
somewhere I reliev fom
Fozures
we went ito
the street. It was very
dark
unusually dark
I thought
The Street lamps
were alight
but thy are
of course
always shade
these days; I
I think they must

have been turned
low as well. A
postal van, + one or two
taxes passed us whegzing
along the street - so things
seemed pretty normal. Noc
many sedale were
about8
concnncte
it was hard to see the fe
kert when you a
side street
whe We pot to the winds or
 

108
Hotel we had to leave
my big brown canoas kit
bog with the Forter. I
heard the soured of womens
voices + laughter coming
from the back of the Porters
room, in the basement; &
it struck one. These parters
aid twvelies in du than they
looks if they are entertain
abevy of girls in there at
this time of the night. I
thought at first they must
be having a joke with
some girls who had come
en. of the street, perhaps
In depositing the boy I
looked in - & there were
two or the rathe tired look
tittle slips of girl in
thaki mackin toshes sitting
on a bench along the white
plactes wall of the box room
 

109
laughing at the porter's chaf
They had no hats on & were
sitting together leaving their heads
against the tall in a ratin
patteti little group tot
remember.
It didn't stike we at
I moment - I must be very
dense. I thought the Parters
must have been intertainng
their consins or sisters at
a beatier & they were very
late or had missed thn

& then as I got
tr ain
apstains it downed
wt
on me. The Hotel seemed
alive at an hour
when it ought to have bn
asleep - I ddhear one a
up or
two people joing
down 1servants staers.
Why these are the servants
of house.
who live attoo
driven down into
basement
of a
to get outo f was
iono
Zeppelin Raid