HMS Alert

“ The British histories say the fight lasted43 fifteen minutes. Doubtless this means from the time the Alert’s crew cheered so vigorously until they hauled down their flag. Farragut says that it was eight minutes from the first broadside of the Essex until the flag came down, and this is not disputed. In eight minutes the Essex had shot the Alert so full of holes that when the American boat’s crew reached the beaten ship the water was seven feet deep in her hold in spite of the utmost efforts of her crew to check the leaks! Not a man was killed on the Alert, and only three were wounded. ”

“ I maintain that it could not possibly be broken by a sea, unless the sea washed something against it. When I had charge of the Alert the gratings were low down, afterwards they were built up to the top of the engine house. I believe the same bunker lids were on the ship when she went down as when I had her. They fastened down with keys, I am positive. Outside the Heads the seas are bigger than in the Bay. If I had the command offered me, I would have taken the Alert to sea. I had not the slightest doubt about her sea-worthiness. ”

“ I should say the Alert was sea-worthy in every respect. The opening spoken of as the pantry window was about fourteen inches by twelve inches square. The glass was about half-an-inch thick, and was in a strong wooden frame. I don’t remember how it was fastened. It would not make the ship unsea-worthy in the slightest degree. The grating was a great height from the main deck, and if any water went down it would only be a splash. The bunker lids fitted into sockets. They rested by their own weight. Unless the ship were upside down no water could go through them. ”

“ Purves, stated: I am the master of the steamer Eagle, a tug boat. Her owners are Messrs. Huddart, Parker & Co., and I am in their employ. I have been master for nineteen years. I knew the Alert, and was in her for eight months in 1889. I remember the wreck of the ship Holyhead at Point Lonsdale, Port Phillip Heads. I was employed on the Alert at that wreck, for about three weeks altogether. I had an opportunity of judging the capacity of the Alert as a sea-boat. I say she was good. I did not see anything in my eight months’ experience of her that made me think she was a dangerous ship. ”

“ You said that the fundamental consideration underlying the entire order was the overwhelming danger of air attack. If that is correct, how could you in the same order maintain the directive for the rescue of captains and chief engineers? That can be found under Heading 2.
DÖNITZ: There is, of course, a great difference in risk between rescue measures for which the submarine has to stop, and men have to go on deck, and a brief surfacing to pick up a captain, because while merely surfacing the submarine remains in a state of alert, whereas otherwise that alertness is completely disrupted. ”

“ There was a sufficient supply of proper life belts on board, and they were easily available. There is no evidence before the Court to show that the late Master, Alexander Mathieson, did not use every precaution in handling the vessel. There is no evidence to justify the Court in expressing an opinion as to the immediate cause of the foundering of the steamship Alert. ”

“ The performance of commanders and crews in this engagement is in the highest tradition of the United States Navy. But repeated acts of violence against the Armed Forces of the United States must be met not only with alert defense, but with positive reply. ”

“ Q.—How many tons of water do you calculate the Alert would ship through the pantry window in the course of a minute? A.—Nearly twenty tons. It would depend a good deal on the height of the water outside. If the vessel were on her beam ends, and the window covered with water, enough would rush in to knock everything down.
Q.—Would the wooden awning help to bring the Alert’s head round in a gale? A.—By putting up a sail aft to the wind, you can always bring a vessel up. The wooden awning might have that effect, but in my opinion it would do more harm than good. ”

“ For operating off Ostend—Swift, Faulknor, Matchless, Mastiff and Afridi.
The British destroyers Mentor, Lightfoot, Zubian and French torpedo boats Lestin, Capitaine Mehl, Francis Garnier, Roux and Boucier to accompany the monitors.
There were in addition to these, three American destroyers—the Taylor, the Alert and the Cyprus.
Eighteen British motor launches for smoke screening duty inshore and rescue work, and six for attending big monitors.
Four French motor launches attending M-24 and M-26 and five coastal motor boats. ”

“ I am a marine surveyor for this port. I have had over thirty years’ experience as ship master, mostly in sailing vessels. I have been in steamships, but not in command. I have been in Melbourne about nine years. I [Pg 160] knew the Alert well, and have been frequently on board. I have been under her twice while she was in dock, not in a professional way, but as a contractor for painting. I have no reason to suppose for a moment that the vessel would be unsea-worthy. I have been a passenger in the Alert up and down to Geelong, and in a convivial sort of way I recollect the pantry window. ”

“ We do not make a declaration to give a permit. I did not make a declaration that the Alert was fit for the outside trade. Captain Deary was appointed shipwright surveyor, and he took my place. Captain Deary is not a shipwright, but I cannot help that. He was appointed, and is a shipwright surveyor by virtue of his office. A shipwright surveyor’s certificate should be given by a man skilled in shipwright surveying. I never measured the grating. When I surveyed the Alert for the permit to go outside the Heads to Tasmania, she had not got a shutter in front of the window. ”

“ Disaster comes to us in all forms, but the stirring story told by Robert Ponting, the survivor from the Alert, partly lifts the veil and shows us how brave men can, and do, even under the most adverse circumstances, battle to the last against the mighty raging sea which finally engulphs them. ”

“ We know, too, that continuous work, without relaxation, for month after month, will break down the nerves and shatter the intellect of the strongest. Yet we read that the men of the Alert toiled like slaves, on one occasion, for seventy-two days, in cold so extreme that the reader can form no conception of its severity, and with the dread constantly hanging over them of that terrible and most depressing disease, scurvy. ”

“ The very first intimation, or knowledge, of the wreck of the Alert was received from the lips of Ponting, the sole survivor, as he lay on Sorrento Beach, the day after the ship had gone down, and if any human being on the shore witnessed the accident without drawing public attention to it at the time, I think he, or she, richly deserves to be indicted for manslaughter! ”

“ After his capture of the Alert, he went on a cruise in the Pacific, destroying the English whale fisheries there, capturing booty valued at two and a half million dollars, and taking four hundred prisoners. So great was the damage he inflicted, that a British squadron was fitted out and sent to the Pacific to capture him, found him in a partially disabled condition in the harbor of Valparaiso, and, disregarding the neutrality of the port, sailed in and attacked him. ”

“ Purves: Apart from my position at Lloyd’s, I have built many thousands of tons of ships. My business was a shipbuilder, and when busy, I have built over 20,000 tons a year. The reclassification of the Alert brought her to her original status equal to a new ship just built. I am trusted with Lloyd’s business in Melbourne, and have a free hand. The amount of freeboard a ship has is no proof of her sea-worthiness. ”

“ With such a window as it was, the Alert was not a sea going vessel, even if her bunker lids had been fastened, which they were not.
I heard the evidence of Mr. Ponting yesterday that the vessel encountered certain weather after passing Cape Schanck, and that she stood out to sea three or four miles. It was a right thing to do to give the land a good berth, and after getting a good offing there was nothing improper in Captain Mathieson making for the Heads. I knew Captain Mathieson by reputation. He was always considered to be a careful seaman. ”

“ If the ship is owned by a British subject, that makes it a British ship, [Pg 271] and the flying of a flag and the registration, wherever made, are not material. The question is, who is she owned by? The fact that she is not registered deprives her of advantages, and leaves her open to pains and penalties. On that ground alone I am prepared to overrule this point, because this ship, the Alert, was owned by British subjects, and that being so, I feel tolerably clear that she was a British ship, and a British ship within the meaning of sect. ”

“ A line of coast was explored 230 miles west of the spot where the Alert wintered—90 miles of which trends northwesterly to Cape Columbia, the extreme northern cape, 83° 7' north latitude, 70° 30' west longitude; thence westward for 60 miles to 79° west longitude, and from there gradually south to 82° 16' north latitude and 83° 33' west longitude, with no indication of land extending from there either westward or northward. ”

“ THE SAVING OF PETERSEN
"Only action gives life strength."
—Richter.
In 1875 the British arctic expedition steamed northward through Kane Sea in its attempt to reach the north pole. Its commander, Captain George S. Nares, R.N., thought it prudent to insure a safe retreat by establishing a southerly base of operations where one ship should remain. Nares, in the flag-ship Alert, chose the dangerous and exposed winter quarters at Floeberg Beach, an open roadstead of the ice-clad Arctic Ocean at the northern entrance of Robeson Channel. ”

“ The sentry hurries to it and sees a fire-alarm from a certain compartment, and he hastily awakes the Captain. The latter presses a button, perhaps without getting out of bed or up from his chair, and instantly there rings the general fire-alarm throughout the ship, and every man on board is called to quarters. For a few seconds it is time of immense confusion and noise. Great gongs are ringing in various parts of the ship. Men are hurrying half dressed, if it be in the night, here and there, and there is much shouting in the giving and passing of orders. ”

“ These instruments are used in many buildings on land, but nowhere are they of such importance as when placed in coal-bunkers or on the outside walls of magazines in war-ships.
Another dial on the indicator where the sentry paces also plays an important part in war-ships. It is called the water-alarm. All modern war-ships have what are known as double bottoms. They are built to prevent the ship from sinking or from becoming flooded in the chief compartments of the vessel below the water-line. ”

“ The captain broke off suddenly and set the alarm bell going as a lynx-eyed lookout cut in with “Connin’ tower o’ submreen three points on port bow,” and, with much banging of boots on steel decks and ladders, the ship had gone to “Action Stations” before a leisurely mounting recognition rocket revealed the fact that the “enemy” was a friend, doubtless a “co-huntress.”
Although we were still far from where there was yet any chance of encountering the U-boat which had attacked the convoy, there were two or three alarms in the course of the next hour. ”

“ In a few minutes a couple of shots may flash out, several shells shatter our conning-tower, the water stream into the ship's body, and in a short while the North Sea close over us.
None of this occurs however. A brief command in the control-room, a few grips of the valves and hand wheels, and we continue our way unhurt, for brutal power may shut us from the surface of the seas, but our enemies in their impotence only cause us to lie a few fathoms deeper. We continue submerged for the sake of safety until daybreak. Towards four o'clock we rise to the surface. ”

“ They have become sadly familiar with the new sea-warfare—with disaster to the shipping in the channels. While they have incident enough, in the movement and activity of patrols and war craft, in the ceaseless sweeping of the channels, to judge our sea-power and take pride in its strength, they have all too frequent experience of the murderous under-water mechanics of the enemy. Living in the midst of sea-alarms, the old placid tedium of their 'sixty days' has given place to an excitement that even the monotonous rounds of their small ship-life cannot suppress. ”

“ Week by week since that time there has come to us from out the grim North Sea, from the Mediterranean and the broad Atlantic abundant testimony, many a story of individual and collective heroism, of ships that have waged gallant fights, of Americans who have lived gallantly, who have died gloriously—and above all there has come to us the gratifying record of reduced submarine losses, as to which there is abundant testimony—notably from the great [Pg 6] maritime and naval power of the world—Great Britain—that our navy has played a vital part in the diminution of the undersea terror. ”

“ Efficient lookout systems on shipboard, with men assigned to different sectors so as to cover the entire horizon, made it possible frequently to detect a periscope or torpedo wake in time to change course, bring guns to bear, and escape destruction. According to a British Admiralty estimate, in case a submarine were sighted the chances of escape were seven to three, but otherwise only one to four. ”