The Dardanelles Disaster by Dan van der Vat

Author:Dan van der Vat [VAN DER, DAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781468303162
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2012-04-21T00:00:00+00:00

The position of commodore, signified by a single broad gold stripe on the sleeve, is not a true rank in the Royal Navy but only a mark of special responsibility for an officer who remains a substantive captain (the next step up the ladder of rank being rear-admiral). As Keyes was lower down the captains’ list than Hayes-Sadler, he was not entitled to give the latter orders unless at the behest of Carden or de Robeck. Carden accepted Keyes’s argument at 11 p.m. and signalled de Robeck to stay put. Keyes next won over the second-in-command to the idea of a sweep as near the Narrows as possible, but with an important difference. One battleship, the Canopus, one light cruiser, destroyers and picket boats would accompany seven trawlers (allowing for the 500-yard minesweeping wires, two and a half inches thick, such was all there was sea-room for) up the strait as near to Chanak as possible. The wires, each supported not only by a minesweeper at each end but also by a large wooden kite in the middle to help maintain the correct depth, were to be deployed only when the trawlers put about. This time they would sail downstream with the current instead of having to fight it with their inadequate power. Fewer than half of the 21 trawlers available on 18 March could make 14 knots. If a pair snared a mine, they had to encircle it with the cable, tow it away and set it off by rifle fire. The technique was hopelessly inadequate in calm waters with no enemy fire; in the often choppy strait, especially under shellfire and searchlights, it was impossible. Keyes asked Captain Heathcote Grant of Canopus (also senior to him) for permission to accompany him and observe. He requested from the Admiralty permission to give the trawlermen a bonus if they were successful: ‘they were not supposed to sweep under fire, and had not joined for that’. He also wanted to stiffen the crews with volunteer junior naval officers and ratings, but permission did not arrive in time.

The escorts blazed away at the five searchlights that lit up the scene but failed to douse them. Guns ashore put up the customary wild barrage. The trawlers formed three pairs with the seventh as leader, but the nervous crews of two of the pairs failed to maintain the requisite 500-yard distance apart, which meant they did not sweep at sufficient depth, making their efforts pointless. The third pair did better, catching and exploding two mines – only to run on to a third, which exploded under one of them. She sank, her crew all rescued by the other trawler’s. The accompanying picket boats proved slightly more effective, using grapnels to snag the mine cables and setting them off with small explosive charges. It was by far the best haul of mines so far, but it still only scratched the surface of the problem. Only two men were wounded that night. The next sweep, on the night of the 11th, was a complete fiasco: the trawlers simply fled when the Turks opened fire.

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