Charles E W Bean, Diaries, AWM38 3DRL 606/61/1 - October 1916 - Part 5

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quite warm inside / Repulse
today altho’ quite fresh.
As they have to shut their
dead lights all the long winter
nights this makes a great
difference to the ships comfort.
We saw The Repulse
has six great 15 in. guns.
From her we went to the
Melbourne. The Melbourne
was provoking patrolling the
West Indies before she came
over here. She hadn't seen a
submarine nor yet even
heard one. She had orders
from / Admiralty to stop
some ^merchant ships other & bring
them into port; others most
they let pass on ^their showing
their flag. Their Australians
were most satisfactory -
75 percent of the ships
company was Australian
 

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they said. They were [[quick?]].
They thought tt our men wd provide
their own ^skilled ratings in time. The
They were Melbourne ws often in Kingston
& sometimes at Bermuda.
They had not expected us in
the Melbourne until ^late that day.
They were coaling at till 9 in the
morning. Then when they xxxx
xxxx heard we were coming
they decided to they were in a
bit of a way as to how they
could get the ship clean. They
told / crew & / crew jumped
to it so well tt I never
realised tt there ws any
difference between / cleanliness
of this ship & any o / others.
I know what it was - these
boys were not going to have an
 

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Australian ship looking
any different worse than a
British one.
From the Melbourne we went
to the Iron Duke. I have been
hoping tt Ross & I wd be past
after in / party wh ws
going to this Flagship - & we
were. And as we came alongside
there ^on / poop by / gangway were
the good humoured witty eyes
& half amused smile of
Sir John Jellicoe himself
looking down on us from
only a few yards away.
The party was to lunch
with him. They really were did us
very well indeed. Jellicoe
asked us to come down &
have a wash - we went
 

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into his sitting room &
were introduced to some ^naval senior staff
officers. A paper ws slipped
into my hand, printed; &
I found tt I was to sit on
the right of Sir John Jellicoe
& the Canadian journalist
on his left. Ross was next
but on on my right - with
Admiral Leveson between
us.
I used my time as well
as I could by asking Sir John
Jellicoe almost all the interesting
points tt I wantd to be certain
about - & he was extraordinarily
interesting. He told me
tt / Germans had missed their
opportunity. "They ought to
have come out at us in the first
 

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three months of the war.
There were times then when
I had seventeen ships to
their fifteen. when we spent
most of our time at sea,
as we did then, the wear &
tear on / ships ws so great
tt we had always to be
sending ships back to refit
port. There were times when
I only had seventeen ships
to their fifteen; if only they
had known it their^submarines could have
come at us sometimes with
a fair chance of wiping us
out. What saved us was
I believe that the fact that
they didn't believe we were
such fools as to go without
xxxx taking ordinary precautions
 

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- they had made full
provision & they took it for
granted tt we had also. As
a matter of fact it ws 3
months before we had a
safe harbour on / sea coast."
"Why - we, the publis,
always had a sort of idea" I
said, "tt when your ships were
in harbour they were safe, &
tt was when they were at sea they
were taking risks . . ."
"We had to go to sea for
safety's sake," he sd. "There
ws no protection in / harbours
at all in those days. Their
submarines might come in
& stand a good chance of
wiping you all out. We had
 

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no proper defences here
at Scapa Flow for 3 months
after / war started. A
German submarine did
come - one day - xx as a
matter of fact we happened to
have gone out at / time.
& we did not get back
She was sunk & they never
attempted it again.
"Now of course we have
safe harbours all up &
down the East Coast - it
is too late for them now.
I asked him if the Germans
ever used Zeppelins with
their fleet.
"They did in August"
[*Aug 19, 1916*]
he sd (when the Falmouth
& another light cruiser Nottingham were

 

49
t1Hcan
I asked him what Australia
ought to do in / naval way after
this war. Shd they build battlecruisers
or what?
"Well - nothing more than
battlecruisers" he sd; "but they shd
be the battlecruisers like the Germans
have - not the same as ours."
[Of course they'll need submarines
for their ports", he sd, "lots of
them.]
"The battlecruiser has proved
its use, xxx has it not?" I
asked.
"Well - yes - but not /
same battlecruiser - she wants
to be different. move like
the Germans have.
 

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sunk). "They knew where
I was all / time & I did
not know where they were
We got within 40 miles of them
I think."
I asked him
Seaplanes were not a
substitute for airships
for these purposes, he sd.
I asked him why the Germans
came out - in his opinion.
I think he said that it
was to tempt us into
their minefields, if possible.
That was It was a very anxious
time when our ships got amongst
their submarines.
He sd tt our ships suffered
very much from want of
protection - especially our
battle cruisers. The German
 

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battlecruisers he sd were
as well armoured as our
battleships - we have few
battleships as well protected as
they have their battlecruisers
& our battleships cannot
compare with theirs in
protection. This class of ships
(the Iron Duke) is abt / best
we have in tt respect, he sd.
"Have we changed tt in
our latest ships? I asked.
"Well - no - our latest
battle cruisers are worse off in
tt respect if anything," he
sd.
Is side armour useless
nowadays, I asked.
"No it certainly cannot 
be dispensed with -  it is
necessary -" he replied.
xxx I suppose shells fall
steeply at / ranges
 

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fight at ,"I suggested.
"Abt 20 degrees," he
sd. Overhead armour
ws not a substitute for
side armour. What we
had now was about 3
decks. The shell wd often
penetrate the top deck &
wd burst about when it
hit the second deck. We
It ws one such shell which
killed did for 50 men
in one of our battleships;
but the armoured deck
ws below it & wd catch
the fragments.
I asked whether / Germans
had an explosive wh wd
not flash.
"No - we are both after