Rushden Argus, 19th February 1915, transcribed by Kay Collins

On the Lion – Modest Tale of a Young Rushden Sailor
Saw the Bluecher Sink

Seaman William Longland, aged 17 years (son of Mr and Mrs Longland of Wellingborough-road), is paying a visit to his parents this week after his exciting experience a few weeks ago.

Seaman Longland, it will be remembered, was on the great battle cruiser Lion, in the Dogger Bank engagement, when the Cruiser Bluecher was sunk. He was trained on HMS Impregnable, and last August was transferred to Admiral Beatty’s flagship. He was formerly a member of the Parish Church Choir and is very popular in the town.

Talking to our representative on Tuesday morning he said he thought they were out on a dummy run, as they had been before, but they worked up the speed from 22 knots to 29½ knots in half-an-hour. “We knew,” he said, “that the Germans were out on Saturday morning. I was on the upper deck, when ‘Ready for action’ sounded, and we all went to our stations. Then we sighted the enemy, just a trail of smoke. I am commander’s messenger myself. I was up on the upper conning tower, when we fired the first shot, just to try the range. The shot fell short about 400 yards, but the second shot knocked the funnel off the Bluecher. I went down into the lower conning tower to the commander. A few minutes afterwards the message came down into the lower conning tower that the left hand gun of the ‘A’ turret (one of the biggest guns of the ship forward) was out of action. They asked how long it would be before it got into action again, and the reply was ‘ten minutes.’ Then a message came to say that ‘A’ magazine was on fire. After that we got out the hose and started pumping water into the magazine. While doing so the message came that the torpedo rooms were flooded, and the carpenters went down to plug the hole. A few minutes later we went on deck and saw the Bluecher sinking. The Admiral then left us and went on board the Princess Royal. At this time we fell out of line. The Tiger, the Princess Royal, the New Zealand, and the Indomitable continued the chase of the enemy, and the latter returned to the Lion in about two hours. We signalled to her to tow us. Just about this time the lights went out on the ship, and we had to use candles. We had no food that day except biscuits and ‘bully beef.’ We got into port on Tuesday morning. We had a great reception when we came in. This was the first time I have been under fire,” said this modest young fighter, “and I felt a bit nervous. During the action I saw one of our destroyers hit a Zeppelin, and then when she fell into the sea ram and sink her. A Zeppelin always comes out with the German ships, but this time we caught them napping.”