Reprinted with permission from the book Hodge’s Cove by Eric Stringer, 2011
Name: PEDDLE, William
Service #: 2194X
Branch of Service: Royal Navy
Marital Status when enlisted: Married
Duration of Service: From 1914 – duration (1918)
Medals awarded: Five medals, can name only three:
- ?? Star
- War Service
- Carnation
Other noteworthy information: Was torpedoed twice. So many hours before he was rescued. When the war was declared over, he was on his way from Australia with a load of troops and a million pairs of rabbits (freight). They had to return again.
The following is a verbatim account of information on Uncle Bill, provided by his granddaughter Kathleen Whalen and which was part of an unpublished book written by his brother Archer:
“It seems that the Changuinola must have been a good sea boat, for at winter time we were almost always up on Rockall when the weather was at its worst, and generally up in the Arctic in summer. Otherwise it would be down on the Belgium coast or in Skagerak or Kettegat.
At one time we were patrolling in Skagerak. It was calm weather but dense fog. Probably we would not be in some of the places we were in except for the fog. On this particular time we were on the lookout for a German raider disguised as a Norwegian merchant ship. We were there a fortnight (that was the length of time to go without coaling). One night the Orcomos, a light cruiser came up, the fog was lying low on the water and the moon shining down through it. Her captain, being senior to ours, told him to keep all guns ready for action as an enemy ship was in the vicinity.
Next day we rigged coaling gear, preparing to go back to the Shetlands to coal ship. That evening the Alacantara, another auxiliary cruiser that belonged to our squadron, came up to take our place. We were in touch with her all night and in the morning we left the patrol at full speed for the coaling base.
At nine o’clock that morning our ship suddenly turned around and all three watches of stokers were called down in the stokehold. The heavy throb of the engines began to increase, the decks began to tremble under the heavy vibrations of the powerful engines. This wasn’t uncommon at any time when a merchant ship was sighted and the chase was on, but the fact that all stokers were called down started some speculation on the mess deck.
A while later the boatswain mate piped, “Clear lower decks. Everyone off watch, fall in on the quarter deck.”
He captain did not leave the bridge but the first lieutenant came with the captain’s message to us. We were told that the Alacantara was in action with a German raider called the Grief and as there were other ships near rushing to the scene, it was unlikely that we would be there in time before it was over. Two hours later we turned back again and were told that both the Alacantara and the German raider had gone down.
So far as would could get on the mess deck from the signalmen and wireless operators, we learned that the Alacantara had mistook the German raider for a Norwegian merchant ship as which she was disguised, had stopped her, and was lowering a boarding boat when she opened fire at close range and at the same time the raider, being equipped with submerged torpedo tubes, had let go all she had. Consequently the Alacantara was doomed to sink. All she could hope for was to stay afloat for an hour or two, but in the meantime that was long enough to put the Germans to the bottom, too.
We also learned that, of the boat’s crew that was lowered, only one man came out of her alive, and now my brother Bill was one of that boat’s crew. What was his fate, we did not know. Gus and Fred Carter also had a cousin (Sam Carter) on board that ship. Of them we know nothing. Later on I was to learn the whole story from Bill. Bill was the only survivor from that boat. He told me later that the boat was being lowered by a single wire from the derrick instead of from the davits. As the boat hit the water, the Germans fired her first shot. It hit under the foremost gun killing nearly all that gun’s ammunition workers. There was going to be no more hoisting in that boat again.
As Bill prepared to go up that wire, a lieutenant was also going up, and he let him go ahead. The wire went to the top of the derrick and down to the ship’s deck. The officer climbed to the top of the derrick and then started to go down the other wire. Bill waited till the officer passed down; then reached out and grasped the other wire and came down above the officer. When he reached the deck, the officer was dead at his feet on the deck.
Then he carried on supplying ammunition to one of the guns. Apparently the Germans were using quite a bit of shrapnel shells. Bill said that every salvo was peppering their boats and boat dock. The Germans started pretty good shooting but soon started to go wild, no doubt due to the fact that gun layers were getting killed and were being replaced by others.
By this time fire was seen in several places on the raider. The Orlanza, another auxiliary cruiser, was one the scene by this time. She opened fire at five miles with six-inch guns. The Orcomos, a light cruiser, appeared also and she opened fire with four-inch semi-automatic guns carrying lyddite shells. At the first salvo, the raider was in a mass of flames.
At this time the Alacantara was slowly sinking and the order was given, “Every man for himself!”
Bill found that all the boats on one side of the ship were useless, being riddled with shrapnel. Going aft on the other side, he met Sam Carter coming up from a boat that was being lowered. Sam shouted to Bill not to go down in that boat; it was going to be chopped up by the propellers which were out of the water and still going around.
Then Bill went for a lifejacket, and going along the deck he came across a marine on the deck with his two legs broken. Then he secured another lifejacket and put it on the marine. He told him when the ship would go down, he would float away and be picked up.
Then Bill took to the water. Jumping from the ship’s side he started to swim as far as he could from the suction of the submerging ship. By this time the ship was on her beam’s end. As Bill started to swim away, there was a loud splash in the water behind him. Looking back he saw the ship’s cook, a very large-bellied man, as he landed in the water like a great whale and striking out to swim away from the ship also.
Bill struck out for a spar that was floating some distance away, but when he got there others began to come along and hang on too until there were too many for comfort. In the distance he could see some boats picking up the men in the water and being a good swimmer he struck out for the nearest one, preferring to be swimming rather than holding on to a spar that was unable to keep up all the men that were hanging on to it.
Finally he got to the boat, or the boat got to him. He got on board and got a hold of an oar to keep himself warm. In going around picking up the men they came across the very marine Bill had put the lifejacket on before he left the ship. When the boat had picked up all the men they could find in the water, they returned to the destroyer that the boat had belonged to. Many of the crew of the Alacantara had been killed or drowned.
On board the destroyer were all the survivors, many of them badly wounded. One man by the name of Young was badly wounded and was very cold. The ship’s doctors were not able to tend to all the wounded and were tending to the worst cases first. Bill got working on Young, stripping the clothes off him and rubbing him down to keep him warm, which exercise was also warming himself. He said that as the destroyer was about to leave for the home port, the captain of the Orcomos signaled to her to have a look around for any German survivors that might be near.
The captain told the signalman to tell him that he had a load of survivors on board, many of them badly wounded and needing medical attention immediately. Turning around he slammed the engine room telegraph down to “Full speed ahead”.
The destroyer gave a sudden lurch ahead, her sharp bows splitting the water like a knife and as her stern settled down a rolling wave of white water followed in her wake as her powerful engines increased to full capacity. A few minutes later came the call from the lookout, “Submarine on the port bow!” One of the foremost guns was given the range and deflection and then the order, “Fire!” Nothing was seen of the object after the shell exploded in the water, while the destroyer raced on.
At Scabba Flow, the wounded were put on board the hospital ship while Bill, with the rest of those who were not wounded, were put on board the Imperieuse, an old overflow ship. They were told by the Admiral to make no mention of the action until they read of it in the newspapers. This action happened on February 19, 1916.
Bill came out of it without a scratch. However, his name did come out as “Mentioned in Dispatches”.
(as submitted by his son Harold)