THE FALKLAND ISLANDS 6 – PAGES FROM A DIARY CONT’D. (Written 10th December 1914 by OKW J Fraser SHAW, Engineer Lieutenant-Commander, H.M.S. Invincible, following the Battle of the Falklands 8th December 1914) The SCHARNHORST was sunk about 4.40 p.m.; of course she had to be left to her fate, and any poor beggars who were still alive; she went on fighting gamely to the end. I understand that, when once she began to sink, she went very rapidly, in a couple of minutes or so. The GNEISENAU went down at 6 p.m.; she had actually fired away all her ammunition before she began to sink, and to make certain that there should be no mistake made and that she should not fall into our hands, they fired a torpedo from their submerged tube and left the door open at the rear of the tube and so flooded that compartment and thence enough of the ship to make quite certain of her disappearing. They couldn’t have done much more could they? As soon as it was evident that she was sinking, we three rushed up to pick up any survivors. I don’t fancy that any were in the water for more than half an hour at the very outside. This ship picked up about 80 and I understand we have about 150 in the three ships. Several whom we picked up were already gone or died almost at once on board, seventeen in all, and they were buried yesterday morning; it was the shock of the cold water, which killed them. Of course only the very strongest could stand the temperature so that they look a decidedly sturdy lot of men. Our men were very good to them as they were helped on board (carried all I think) and rubbed them and massaged them, till they gradually came round; any number of volunteers for the job. They were provided with warm clothing, and they certainly had hot food given to them long before any of our people had anything to eat at all. That was partly because cooks and that sort of people from the first aid party and so were assisting the doctors.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 01:00:00 +0000
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