FLAGSHIP’S RETURN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2734, 12 February 1910, Page 7

FLAGSHIP’S RETURN.

COMMENCEMENT OF THIRD COM

MISSION.

AN ACCOUNT OF THE CRUISE

H.M.S. Powerful returned to lier old position in Farm Cove, Sydney, on February 3. Inis (says the “Sydney Morning Herald”), may be said to mark the commencement of the final stage in her career as flagship of the Australian squadron, for never again will she return to Sydney after the close of the commission which is now in its infancy. Once again the Commander-in-Chief’s Hag, which has been flying on H.M.S. Penguin since December G last, was hoisted at the fore, symbolising the recommencement of the busy round of duties which the ' flagship performs while present with the Commander-in-Chief. The cruise was not exactly an eventful one, and yet there were a few incidents which will die hard in the memory of those who participated in them.

Nothing, for instance, could have been more calculated to touch the sentimental heart of the sailor-man than the .scenes connected with the departure from Sydney. People in Sydney who read their papers on December 7 noticed that “the Powerful, had left to pay oIF at Colombo,” but did they think what that meant to the 1000 men on board, less, than one in ten of whom would over see Australia’s sunny shores or tlmir good friends in Sydney again? oo wonder, then, that the departure was made much of on board. All the men fell in on the upper deck, with the officers and the marine guard and band on the poop. As the stern swung away from the buoy the band expressed the feelings of all on board by striking up “The" Girl I Left Behind Me.” A faint cheer reached the ship from the rapidlyincreasing crowds in the Gardens and elsewhere; handkerchiefs waved from a score of small boats, which followed the ship as long as they could keep up. All on board longed to'return the compliment by a wave of the hand —a cheer; but that would have been a gross breach of discipline. One only acknowledges friends off duty. On duty friends are expected to fade from one’s memory and thoughts! The only message for friends ashore was conveyed by the long paying-off pennant, wlueli suddenly streamed out from the masthead and floated in the air full GOO ft astern, waving the farewell of those who stood to attention beneath it.

The hand played “Auld Lang Sync” and “Rolling Home to Merrie England,” and then,, with a sad look about them, officers and men returned to the usual routine duties of a ship at sea.

The mueh-talked-oi “Bight” had no terrors for the Powerful. She arrived at Fremantle without having rolled one degree more than would the Manly ferrv on a calm day.

A heat-wave had been experienced at Perth just before the flagship’s arrival, but it bad passed, and though very hot weather was experienced, the thermometer did not go above 105 degrees during the. stay, which was most fortunate, as heavy work had to he done in the wav of coaling. The collier TV ailiora arrived from West-port on December, 12 with 4000 tons of coal, of which 1500 tons bad to be taken on board at once, and the remainder landed for the return journey. Quite a lengthy stay was made at Fremantle —nine days—but it could not be prolonged over Christmas. On Christmas Eve the Powerful was at sea again, in spite of all the home and fireside traditions which have ever been indissolubly linked with that period of the year. However, a month’s, leave will he granted to all hands on ’arrival in England.

CHRISTMAS AT SEA. By a curious coincidence, the tropics were reached on Christmas Day. Of course, tropical weather ou Christinas Day is no new tiling to dwellers' in the Southern Hemisphere; but for the English crew the weather was most u’nChristmaslikc. To those who had been accustomed to open-air skating, snowballing, and other such icy amusements at this time of the year it came as somewhat of a shock to find a red-hot sun beating down through the awning, and threatening sunstroke to the ship s company, assembled on the peep for Christmas morning, service. As a rule, great efforts are made to enliven Christmas Day in the Navy. A slight relaxation of the iron cords of discipline on one day in the year does no one any harm, and allows more time and opportunity for a little innocent “bear-play.” Keen competition is also shown on the mess-deek in tlie decorative line, each mess vying with its nextdoor neighbor to produce the most tasty effect; with bunting, colored-paper streamers, etc., etc., the skill displayed on some occasions being of the highest order. The.se preparations being complete, the captain and officers usually go round the messes, and admire the ornamentations.

However, on this occasion few of tlie old-time customs were carried out largely, no doubt, because every one was more or less prostrated witli tlie intense heat; but in the cool of the evening a by no means unsuccessful effort was made to liven things un with an impromptu concert; and this is a line in which Jack Tar excels.

To begin with, he must have a proper stage, with wings, scenery, and curtain all complete—all of which are manufactured and painted on board. Elaborate dresses, with stage properties of all sorts and sizes, appear, from nowhere. The programme is long and varied. Songs, grave and gay, relieved from time to time by a generous allowance of nigger minstrel and tambourine, step-dances, and last, but Jby no means least, a, “handcuff king,” who disentangled himself from a formidable collection of chains, 'handcuffs, etc., a point in his favor being that these were not “property” handcuffs, but the real naval article, which is used when violent breakers of the law are ordered to be placed in irons.

BETWEEN TWO FIRES. The eleven-day trip from Fremantle to Colombo was like a ride through a bush fire. A boiling, -pitiless sun, striking down from directly, overhead with overpowering force, and a sickly, stifling, suffocating heat rising from below, where 20 mighty furnaces raged and roared like the mouth of hell. On the middle deck men in bare feet could not stand still for two minutes together; while metal door-handles were so hot that opening and closing doors was a most painful process. • And what of the stokehold ?

Sweating, shovelling, trimming in a temperature of about 120 degrees, over 100 men are working. One by one, at 'frequent intervals, the great furnace doors swing open, in response to a bell which rings from the engineroom. The inky, coal-black night of the boilerroom is momentarily swallowed up by the furious glare from the open furnace, while a perspiring stoker shovels a fixed 'allowance of coal into its greedy, scorching mouth. Then the door shuts, and for a. few seconds darkness reigns again,. until the signal

comes for the next fire-breatliing dragon to be fed. Two years ago, when the ship had only iust recommissioned, and the greater part of the stokers were young and inexperienced, it was almost a daily occurrence for men to be carried on deck, gasping, completely exhausted by the’ strain and the awful heat. Even on this trip there were a lew eases of temporary break-downs among the men.

By waj' of compensation for the extra hardships they undergo, stokers are paid nearly double their ardinary pay when steaming in the tropics, and are also given an extra allowance of lurejuice at the end of their four-hour watch below.

MEETING OF NORTH AND SOUT H. The Powerful arrived at Colombo on January 4, and the Terrible joined her two days later. There England and Australia met. Side by side these twin-sisters lay, not 20 yards apart. A month ago they had been separated by something over 12,000 miles. On board one were nearly 1000 happy men, freshly released from the terrors of the relentless “Home Fleet,” and bound for what they knew to be the “Sailor’s Rest,” as the Australian station has at times been naively summed up; while the other also carried her 1000 men, and these, sad indeed at leaving their happy hunting ground, but sufficiently excited over tlie prospect of their foreign service leave to be oblivious for the time V)f the troubles in store for them at home, in their “next ship.” A few there were on board who could remember the days when these two vessels met and united during the exciting times at the commencement of the Boer War; how the naval landing parties were in the field almost from the commencement of hostilities; how they came in for their fair share of honors at Graspan, Modder River, Nicholson’s Nek, and finally how the Terrible came to the relief of the Powerful—besieged in Ladysmith. The Powerful’s new crew, fresh from the gunnery schools and barracks, is a very fine lot of men —“smart, healthy, and well-equipped,” as one of the officers remarked. Besides her own crew, over a hundred men have been brought out to fill vacancies in other ships on the station. , Of course, the new-comers are as full of news as new-comers always are. “Dreadnought!” shouted a horny old A.B. contemptuously, in reply to a timid query. “Dreadnought! why her’s as obsolete as that there old \ '/dory wot fought the Frenchman at Trafalgar. We’re all a-talking of the Orion these days, and (this confidently) they do sav as how the noo ships wot is being builded is goin’ to knock spots off the lot of them. Dreadnoughts, indeed !” And he relapsed into dreamy and superior indifference.