Alcantara vs. Greif: Duel of the Merchant Cruisers

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When Britain and Germany locked horns in 1914, one of the earliest duties of the Royal Navy was block­ading the German coast to prevent supplies of food and war materials from reaching the enemy ports. The Royal Navy did not have suitable ships for the block­ade, so it commandeered a number of large British passenger liners.* After fitting them out as armed mer­chant cruisers, they formed the 10th Cruiser Squadron. Based on Birkenhead, across from Liverpool on the river Mersey, the ships were to maintain a blockade patrol over an area bounded by the Orkney Islands (just north of Scotland), the Shetland Islands north of them, and the coast of Norway.

In October 1915, I joined the Royal Navy’ as a midshipman. After a period of training at the Chatham Barracks gunnery' school, I was appointed to HMS Alcantara, one of the units of the 10th Cruiser Squad­ron. Practically a new ship of nearly 16,000 gross tons and a speed of 18 knots (fast for those days), she had been owned by the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company of London before being commandeered. After being stripped of her most expensive fittings, the Alcantara was armed with six 6-inch guns, two each side of the foredeck and one each side aft. In addition she had two 3-pounder guns, one each side amidships. Having lots of spare space, she was able to carry sufficient bunker coal to last out the regular six-week patrol with a good reserve in case of emergency.

Commanded by Captain T. E. Wardle, Royal Navy, her officer personnel were naval reservists called up from the merchant service. The ship's company was quite a hodgepodge. Fleet Reservists (time-expired men from the Royal Navy' who had to complete a certain number of years on the reserve), Royal Marine Light Infantry reservists, Newfoundland Naval Reservists, H.O. (Hostility Only, Seamen Volunteers), and a sprinkling of her peacetime merchant crew. To bind them into a viable whole, there were a few regular naval petty' officers in key jobs, with a warrant officer (G)—for gunnery—in charge of the armament.

Once in the patrol area the Alcantara's task was to ‘Originally, old Royal Navy cruisers had been used on the blockade, but they didn’t have sufficient coal capacity to remain on station tor any length of time.

stop and interrogate all ships seen. If there was the least suspicion, they were boarded by trained boarding officers, all ex-merchant service officers with much ex­perience with cargo. If a cargo was on the contraband list or the boarding officer wasn’t satisfied, our captain could order the ship to a British port under armed guard for a more complete investigation.

Since Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Russia, and the Baltic states were still trading legitimately, the flagship kept all units advised as to what ships were expected to pass the patrols. For identification at a distance, each neutral had to have a large flag of her nation painted on both sides of the hull amidships.

Occasionally outbound ships attempted to slip through the blockade by keeping inside the three-mile limit off the Norwegian coast. As soon as darkness set in or the visibility was poor, they would alter course to the west and hope for the best. This applied in reverse to inbound shipping, and some succeeded.

Although the nearest patrol came within sight of the Norwegian coast, an armed merchant cruiser never ventured inside the three-mile limit. There were two armed naval trawlers working with her. They kept outside the three-mile limit during daylight hours and slipped in close to the land after dark to scout for shipping. They kept a wary eye open for the Norwegian Navy which patrolled the coast for neutrality viola­tions.

When the trawlers sighted anything suspicious, they reported by radio to the merchant cruiser. Little time was allowed for search at sea. The high sides of the armed merchant cruisers made them good targets for submarines; quite a number were sunk by U-boats. In December 1917, the 10th Cruiser Squadron was dis­banded because the ships were too vulnerable to sub­marine attack.

At various times during the week we exercised at general quarters. My own station placed me in charge of the transmitting station (TS), the heart of our gun­ner)' system. The TS was a large room two decks below

In this artist’s depiction of the merchant cruiser duel, the Alcantara, left, returns the fire of the Greif.

and

destination.” The other ship stopped her eng*¹¹*

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the open porthole of the transmitting station in °^r'

-der

_______ _                                    „                                       Up

fidential list of ships expected to pass through ¹ ^

out

Because she appeared to be above suspicion,

fall

rb

tt’i

out, but the gun crew’s were to remain closed up

their guns trained and ready to open fire instan .

something about her masts struck me as rather um*s^u‘

m⁰¹*¹'

ship⁵

in the docks of my hometown, and I distinctly t^e

lates^[

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My suspicions were soon confirmed. Just as we

to full speed, and hidden guns began to blaze

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captain realized that his identity would be rev

had

the boarding officer came on board. Hence, he

the bridge. The only instruments I had were a range clock and a dumaresq (invented by a naval officer with that name). By placing certain data on the latter, I could read off the opening or closing rate for the speed of the range clock. I could also determine the deflec­tion, allowing for the target’s movement to the right or left of the line of sight.

Around the steel bulkhead were six flexible metal voicepipes—one for each 6-inch gun. Above my head was the mouthpiece connecting me to the gun control officer’s station on top of the bridge.

As winter settled in—with its short periods of day­light, and poor visibility—it gave more than an even chance to any ship attempting to sneak through the blockade. With all ships completely blacked out, in­cluding navigation lights, it was easy for a ship to dodge patrols, particularly during the frequent winter gales.

We sailed in due course, and the night before our departure, I was talking with our Irish warrant officer (gunnery'). He was in a dour mood as he said, "Some­thing tells me I’ll never see Liverpool again. Neither will the ship. Our black cat disappeared last night, and we sail on a Friday.” He was right.

Thursday, 29 February' 1916 dawned dull and over­cast with a biting cold wind and moderate sea. During the previous night we had received an urgent message. A German raider had sailed from Cuxhaven—a city upriver from Hamburg on the Elbe—on the morning of the 27th and would attempt to slip through the blockade into the Atlantic. The message also indicated that a sweeping force of three light cruisers and three destroyers, working in pairs, had been detached from the Grand Fleet at Scapa Flow to search for her.

All units of our squadron were put on special alert and instructed to use the utmost discretion when chal­lenging and boarding ships because the raider was disguised as a peaceful merchant ship. Our intelligence people in Germany had picked up some interesting details. She was practically a new’ ship of 5,000 gross tons and a speed of 16 knots.

Armed with four of their latest type 5.9-inch guns, one 4.1-inch and two 19- 7-inch torpedo tubes, she was under orders to make for German East Africa with supplies and ammunition for troops fighting there. She was to sink as many ships as possible on the way but on no account was to endanger herself.

On the morning of the 29th, I heard the bugle sound what appeared to be "exercise general quarters.” It was customary to hold GQ drills two or three times a week at odd hours, so I wasn’t surprised. But when it was repeated it seemed to me as if the bugler had mistakenly sounded four Gs after it instead of the usual three. Four meant the real thing. When it sounded a third time with a note of urgency’ on the four O. I felt a shivery thrill as my thoughts turned to tl*^c raider. Or was she something more powerful?

Apparently our masthead lookout had sighted ¹ steamer hull down, heading west. She must ha'^c sighted us at the same time; a few’ minutes later the lookout reported that she had apparently reverse*¹ course. This was a suspicious maneuver, so our cap^tal11 immediately altered course and increased speed to in^ter cept her.

When within visual signaling range, the AlcanM^ hoisted the flag signal "Stop and give your name hoisted the Norwegian flag aft, and identified herse as the Rena bound to Tonsberg, Norway. Our posit*⁰¹¹ w'as then 60° 18' North, 1° 00' East.

In a quiet moment, I took a quick look throng to see the other vessel. She w'as fairly deeply l°^a^^e ’ had two masts and a black funnel w’ith rwo light bl^ue bands fairly close together. Painted conspicuously °jj her hull amidships w'as a large Norwegian flag. T° ¹. intents and purposes, she appeared to be a pea°^e merchant ship.

As w’e steamed around her at a range of 2,000 y^ar ’ she w’as carefully inspected from our bridge for ^afl' thing suspicious about her superstructure. On the ⁰⁰¹¹ patrols w’as a Norwegian SS Rena w’ith the ident*⁰ funnel marks, owned by the Wilhelmsen Line.

captain ordered the ammunition supply parties to ‘

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Meanwhile, our boarding cutter w’as being readied- ^ While making his rounds of the guns, one of ¹ ^ Alcantara's officers stopped in at the TS. As we ^sr0° chatting by the open porthole, and watching the h ^

Just before the w’ar, I had seen several German

bered one thing about them. The masts of their ships were set perpendicular to the w’aterline-—n° ^r ^_f The Rena had exactly that type of mast, and no ⁰ country’s ships did.

slowfing down to low’er the boarding cutter, there a sudden swirl under the Rena's stern. Her engines * at us from practically point-blank range. Apparent*)

,’eal^ed

favof-

The Norwegian flag at the stern w’ent overboa*

rd ^{aS i}

option but to fight it out—with surprise in his

^cntarily taken by surprise, and I hurriedly sat

^e Orders: "Start the clock”—"Range, 2,000”—"Own

'P s speed, 18 knots”—"Enemy’s speed, 16 knots”

dnclin;

^me

^ln quick succession.

th 7"^anwbile, a shell from the Greif’s first salvo hit ^aod °^ardlnS ^cuttcr as it was being lowered, killing

f

^a>/t<zra offered a splendid target, while the Greif’s

bad been receiving spotting corrections from the

argument. Because we were just below the

^ead. The enemy vessel was SMS Greif. We were "lom,                ^{1                      J}

at the range clock and dumaresq. Down came

shi nation 10 right”-"Salvos”-''Shoot.” All these

₀ ^ae range went on the clock and the other data j dumaresq. I quickly read off the rate from the |‘cj ,^aresd (the speed of the clock, whether opening or ₃ ,^Sln8) and adjusted it. Then I read off the deflection ^rh '^rTlrTle'diately called out the first range along with f section. The voicepipe operators passed this in- _tj_rt^^tlatr°ⁿ to the guns, and we were in action in no

H

b,

^ founding several of the crew and badly damaging °^at- Being much higher out of the water, the

Of' P^r°file offered us a poor one. We had the advantage (rpeed; she had the advantage of the latest guns j^r °ur 20-year-old ones.

°;-n^tr°l officer of the fall of shot. I placed these B_Ut .^{c c}l°ck, then passed down the corrected ranges. ty_er ^{11 w}asn’t long before our unprotected voicepipes ^S^^ot away. Eventually, I was in contact with only r_Cc .^tw° after guns. When rhe sightsetters failed to of ^ ^e ranges from rhe TS, the officer in charge t_ro| ^e 8^un automatically went into independent con-

liljg ^[1] ^^rst> the booming of the guns sounded to us ^lhr₀ ² P^ract*^ce shoot—until a man came running $e_v , ^Wath blood streaming down his face. When (the, ^S^^eds passed through the TS without exploding bey_Q ^started off with armor-piercing shells), it was

Gunnery rules went by the board that day. The guns had to be kept firing. For instance, the cordite charges were contained in brass cylinders. Under certain condi­tions, they were liable to a hangfire, failing to detonate when the gun was fired. At gunnery school, we were taught to wait half an hour for a hangfire before open­ing the breech. In the heat of battle, that was impossi­ble. The risk had to be taken. Fortunately, none of the cartridges exploded.

We in the transmitting station seemed to bear a charmed life, although we expected that any minute we would be blown to kingdom come. Occasionally, a shell passed right through our light steel bulkhead without exploding. Below decks—as I learned later— rhe fire parties were having a tough time trying to keep the many fires under control. Many of the ship’s peace­time furnishings were still on board and very flam­mable.

The voicepipes to the after guns were severed by an exploding shell. While waiting for repairs to be made, I had nothing to do for a few minutes, so I took a quick look through the open porthole. The Greif had encountered more grief than she bargained for. I saw one shell explode the ready ammunition near her after gun. Suddenly there was a burst of yellow flame—exit gun and crew. Another took the top off her funnel. One moment it was there; the next, it was gone.

When a certain amount of communication was re­stored, two gun crews reported their training gear jammed. Crews from the disengaged side were rushed across to help train them by brute force. While zig-

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zagging round the enemy at 18 knots, our ship listed heavily at each alteration of course. It was most difficult to train the guns under the circumstances. At no time was the range more than 3,000 yards.

The early damage to the Alcantara was mostly su­perficial, but then our good fortune suddenly changed. A lucky shot from one of the Greif’s torpedo tubes struck us amidships port side. A second one passed close under the stern. Eventually the punishment we were dishing out began to take effect on the enemy ship, causing her to lose speed. Yet she still kept up an incessant fire, giving us just as much as we were giving her. After a few more minutes she stopped and lay at our mercy. Although we poured salvo after salvo into her, she still remained afloat and upright.

Forty minutes after the battle opened, the Greif’s captain decided to call it quits. From what we heard from survivors, her decks were a bloody shambles. To save further useless bloodshed, the German captain decided to abandon ship and concede us the victor)'. As men left in what remained of her boats, our captain gave the order to cease fire. She was then less than 2,000 yards away.

Although the Greif was definitely through, she showed no signs of sinking. By this time our ship was also feeling the effects of shellfire and possibly that of the torpedo. We slowly developed a list to starboard. The engineroom staff was able to correct it, but our ship was no sooner upright than she flopped over to port. When the list reached 15°, our captain gave the order to abandon ship.

When the order reached the TS, we dropped every­thing, then hurried away. I grabbed my cork lifejacket and a few small intimate things from my cabin. Then I hurried up to the boatdeck where the heavy list made footing difficult. There were no boats at all left on the port side out of the seven ordinary and seven collapsibles stowed below them. All had been blown to pieces.

I managed to make my way over to the starboard side. Our ship was still moving through the water, leaving a trail of lifeboats and men’s heads bobbing around. All the boats were gone except one, and all were full to overflowing. In some cases they couldn’t even use the oars.

We were fortunate in that the wind had dropped to a light breeze. Once the sea had calmed down, it made all the difference and gave us hope. If it had been the usual Atlantic February weather I doubt if many or any of us would have survived. Meanwhile our gallant ship was still steaming ahead in a very' large circle. The controls of the starboard engine were jammed, and it couldn’t be stopped.

Fortunately, the starboard side had not been the

engaged side. Hence, those boats were undamaged, Wl they' still had troubles. Just as one boatload of was about to be lowered, the after fall parted, and do"¹¹ went the stern with a run. The next moment all¹ ; men were poured into the water from a height ot feet. Apparently the fall had been partly frayed b) shell splinter.                               , j

For those of us left on the boatdeck, the situad°i looked grim indeed, particularly for the wounded' was a motley crowd, mainly from the engine and b°n rooms. Some were covered with coal dust, others w oil and grease, and still others with dried blood ^3fl bandages. A few even had yellow stained faces exploding shells. On the faces of the wounded despairing look of agony as they realized their ch* of survival was indeed slim.                                                                                       J

On looking over the starboard side. I saw that boat was still alongside, crammed to the gunwales men and being towed alongside in a dangerous man J They had not been able to cast off the forward because of the terrific strain on it while the ship

still making headway through the water. Q^ul^ throwing off my coat and shoes, I climbed doW¹¹ ^ ship’s side via the portholes. This was fairly easy the list was now about 20°. I then managed to ^sfl jj, I into the forward end of the boat. I was no soon# the boat than an ax was found. In a matter of ^5eC°^P_t0 j the fall was chopped through, and the boat beg^¹j| j drift astern. Unfortunately we were now out ⁰   1

frying pan into the fire.                                                              3

As the boat drifted along the ship’s side, the ^ j board propeller, which was only partially subm^er», was slowly turning. We drifted right into that p^r<Yj ler. The blades cur right into the after end of the u and capsized it. I was thrown clear, but not far en ^ The swirling whirlpool of the wake quickly d^faS- J me under.                                       ^

As I went under, I was grabbed by another ⁰ survivors. I managed to get free and back to the ^5Ul^_j(1 but then was dragged under again, this time by ^a ^ without a life jacket. A butt in the stomach bro hold, and we both came to the surface. By ^noW’,»_rc lungs, which had been on the point of bursting, ^ able to get cleaned out with a good lungful o _t air. I was pretty well exhausted but could ju^st and hope. Undoubtedly, the lifejacket saved tn) ₍ After floating and occasionally swimming f°^r seemed an eternity in the cold North Atlantic, came drifting my way. It was packed to the g^u ^ As I swam toward it, I saw' a vacant place lifelines, grabbed, and held on. Some few minute⁵ ^ when the men were singing to keep up their ⁵P there w^Tas a shout: "The old ship is going-’ ^ my head, I watched her slowly capsize and tH^s3P

^ⁿcath the water. Her two large battle ensigns were

^S^1 bravely flying—a sad but worthy end for a fine ship,

We drifted around for what seemed an interminable ^{tlnie w}hile the men continued to sing. Suddenly smoke ^ sighted; in the distance we could make out the °^udines of two ships. Someone volunteered the infor- ⁿ'^at*°ⁿ that the Greif had been shadowed by two _j^man destroyers until clear of the Norwegian coast,

f ^lng up two other boats’ crews the Munster headed ^rant°^Ur ^°^{at an<}^ ^rescue<d ^us- Mr. Casey, our Irish war- officer, who had prophesied the death of the

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that could be them. Our hearts sank as the ships down on us.

here was a sudden flash and a burst of smoke from ^ oremost one as a gun opened fire. Were they going ^ shell the boats? If so, that -would be the last straw. ^ ^We tensely awaited the splash, we saw it was in j^e direction of the still floating and burning Greif c ^<acnh-' one made an alteration of course to show th ^^ran<^ white ensign flying from her gaff. As seb ^aF’P^roach^ed. those who were able howled them- q. ^es hoarse with joy. Leading was HM light cruiser j '^lUs hollowed by HM torpedo boat destroyer Munster. Pick'⁵ °^ne P^aarS footing h°^r the Greif After

Alcantara and also his own, was not among the survi­vors.

The Comus picked up quite a number of the German survivors, then proceeded to finish off the still floating Greif. She poured salvo after salvo into her. The Greif absorbed them all, showing no desire to sink. Eventu­ally a shell landed in her magazine. There was a terriffic explosion, and she began to list. At a few minutes past noon, she disappeared into the ocean’s depths, her tattered battle ensigns still bravely flying. She had put up a good fight, and so ended one of the last of the old time battles of ship against ship at close range.

Commander Poole joined the Royal Navy from the merchant service in 1915. His World War I duty included Armed Guard command, HMS Alcantara, the cruiser King Alfred, destroyers, Hardy and Spitfire and HM torpedo boat No. 3. Between wars he served with the British India Line out of Calcutta and later with the Canadian Pacific "White Empresses” on the Vancouver, B.C. Orient Service. He was involved in reserve training on board battleships, cruisers, destroyers and the aircraft carrier Hemes during various periods. In World War II, after serving as commodore of East Coast (North Sea) convoys, he commanded HMCS Hamilton—training officer candidates for the Canadian Navy and also as Commodore of Convoys. On being demobilized he returned to the Canadian Pacific and on retirement joined the Department of Transport and served for 12 seasons as Marine Sub Agent and Harbor Master (Port Captain) at Goose Bay, Labrador. He was also Lloyd’s agent.