The Death of Hope Andrew Wareham (book club reads TXT) 📖

inch guns. Provided Beatty hadkept his flotillas together, it should have been a massacre.

Nothing for long minutes, the wirelesssilent again. The same runner came, literally running, thrusting the message formforward to the nearest officer.

“Indefatigable and Queen Mary gone, sir.All hands. Blown up.”

There was dead silence on the bridge,broken after a while by the captain’s voice.

“Led them into a minefield, perhaps? Asubmarine trap?”

The Fleet had been warned of bothpossibilities; they were known to be part of German planning.

Half an hour of speculation, tinged withhorror – the Germans were the underdog, their fleet massively weaker. It couldnot happen that way.

The voicepipe gave a whistle.

“Wireless cabin, sir. From Admiral Beatty.High Seas Fleet to southwest. Running before them. Admiral Jellicoe hassignalled the Admiralty that a general fleet action is imminent.”

That was better. Beatty was bringing theHigh Seas Fleet into the trap, would lead them into the massive broadsides oftwenty-four dreadnoughts in line across their ‘T’. No fleet could survive thatonslaught.

“All officers to their stations, gentlemen.”

Black Prince could have no part to play inthe battle, was far too small, would be brushed aside in seconds. The CruiserDivision would play its part in discovering fleeing battleships, possiblymopping up the most damaged, bringing the Grand Fleet to the location whennecessary.

“Wireless cabin reports interference withsignals, sir. Jamming, probably, by the Hun.”

An hour and they heard the guns well to theirsouthwest, out of sight, battle joined.

“From Commodore, sir. Make due south.”

The flag signal was brief and contained nodetail.

Black Prince conformed, slowly losing contactwith the rest of the Division.

Mid evening saw a flurry of action totheir southwest, their sole information coming from the spotting top, theGunner using his glasses.

“Battlecruisers firing, sir. Defence andWarrior joining, sir.”

The Yeoman called the flag signal to holdcourse from Defence.

A delay, a noisy, intense action out ofsight on their starboard bow, a signal from Duke of Edinburgh, the Morse Codejust decipherable.

“Defence and Warrior gone, sir. One of thebattlecruisers blown up. Continue south. Discover location High Seas Fleet.”

The great battle had turned into disaster,or so it seemed. They could only imagine that somehow Jellicoe had failed tomake contact with the High Seas Fleet, that Beatty had not led them into thetrap.

“Wireless cabin. Continue to attemptcontact with Fleet.”

The message came back that the jamming wasstronger than ever. If ships of the High Seas Fleet were responsible, they werecoming closer.

Night fell, the last they knew a broken signalfrom Duke of Edinburgh that there was destroyer action to the southwest at thefar limit of visibility. They were to maintain course and speed until reachingDanish waters when they should head towards the edge of the known minefieldsand then reverse course towards the Skagerrak in case the High Seas Fleet hadpassed them in the darkness.

Captain Gilpin-Brown acknowledged his orders.

“Flailing about in the dark. Blindfoldedboxing!”

A little before midnight Christopherestimated they had reached Danish waters.

“Course south southwest, sir.”

Black Prince turned to the heading given,reducing speed to twelve knots.

“Torpedo tubes turned out. Ready forimmediate action.”

Christopher approved. Evidently Captain Gilpin-Brownhad hopes of catching a big ship in the night, as they had discussedrepeatedly.

The night was black, visibility effectivelynil in the haze.

“Ship, sir! Across the bows!”

Immediate night action, as rehearsed timeand again, the searchlights turned on, all guns that would bear ready.

“German, sir. Battleship.”

“Open fire!”

Two of the six inchers fired and scored immediatehits, the range less than a quarter of a mile. Christopher heard a torpedo tubefire. The nine point two inch main armament was slower in coming into action,had still not fired when the German ship responded with her secondary armament,too close to use her main guns, and four others astern and ahead of her firedtheir twelve inchers.

Shells landed aboard from stern to bows. Twoof the funnels fell and there were massive fires amidships and to the stern.Black Prince lost power and steering in the same few seconds, fell off line,wallowing in the light swell.

The bridge was hit repeatedly. Christopherstaggered from the chartroom, bleeding from three separate wounds, tried tomake his way to the conn where the captain was lying, legs blown off, obviouslydead. A final twelve inch shell exploded, destroying the upperworks, splintersripping him to pieces. Seconds later the forward magazine blew and Black Princefell onto her side and sank almost immediately, none of her crew surviving.

South in the Broad Fourteens, Simon hadbrought his flotilla to the edge of Dutch waters, running north at twenty-eightknots, responding to orders from Harwich to seek out light forces thought tohave sailed north from Zeebrugge and nearby havens.

“Yeoman, all ships, report oil state.”

All responded with at least thirty hoursat full speed, more than sufficient for their purposes.

Naiad had the most powerful wirelessreceiver, picked up Jellicoe’s signal to the Admiralty.

“All ships. C in C expects fleet actionthis day. Battle ensigns.”

The biggest ensigns they had, flying fromboth masts as was tradition.

“Splice the mainbrace, Number One.”

Another tradition, one that Simon was lessin favour of. He had no choice. The hands must have their rum in anticipation ofthe day’s business.

“Bloody stuff, Mr Strachan! How are men tosit at rangefinders, making precise readings and calculations with their headsswimming?”

“Fighting spirit, sir! They will be rightwhen the time comes.”

Simon thought that to be one of the morestupid responses he had ever heard. He accepted that it was typical of theNavy.

“From Lisle, sir, repeated Lark. ‘Smokeinshore. Four ships. More at distance’.”

“Make ‘Observe. Do not enter Dutch waters’.”

The flag signal was sent down the line,acknowledgement returned. Simon preferred not to use the wireless so close toGermany and its superior facilities. Intelligence insisted that the Germancodebreakers could listen in to all wireless traffic and send information totheir own ships within minutes.

“Would have been useful to know what theships were, sir.”

“Visibility is patchy, Number One. It’spossible that all they can pick up is four black clouds. Must be coal burnersand probably large – old light cruisers or protected cruisers even. No reportsof anything bigger down on the Belgian coast. No gain to harassing Lisle formore – they will send along everything they see without me on their backs.”

Nearly an hour passed before the nextmessage that there were four large and at least three smaller vessels, courseappeared to be northwards, possibly