We are celebrating the 90th anniversary of our opening. Click here to find out more. We hit the Emden about a hundred times, and fourteen of her shells struck us but most of them were fired beyond her range and the shells hit the side and dropped into the water without exploding. My God, what a sight! One of our shells had landed behind a gun shield, and had blown the whole gun-crew into one pulp. You couldn't even tell how many men there had beenβ¦.
They crawled up to the beach and they had one doctor fit for action; but he had nothing to treat them withβthey hadn't even got any water. A lot of them drank salt water and killed themselves. I took them on board and got four doctors to work on them Meanwhile, year-old engine room stoker Stan Newton recounted in his personal diary his own version of events.
Just days after the engagement he wrote:. This upset our firing a time. Although we did not know it, we had hit the Emden with a lucky shot from our first broadsideβ¦. One of these fellows was a gunlayer. A second or so later another gunlayer was hit with a piece of shell through the body. He lingered for 48 hours. The next unlucky shot hit our after control, wounding the control officer and 4 of the men; one man being blown completely out of the control.
This man had his right eye blown out and was wounded in the leg and body. He recovered and managed to carry the officer below. The Emden firing was very good at the beginning of the action but soon fell away [β¦] It was now our turn to make good, which we did with a vengeance. For Newtonβas with Glossopβthe SydneyβEmden engagement proved his last sea battle. But it was certainly not his first taste of naval warfare. In an effort to reform the disturbed youth, the Court entered him into service on the NSS Sobraon , a reformatory training ship that housed up to troublesome boys.
In , the Sobraon was abandoned. In October, she returned home to provide escort to the First A. Convoy [6]. Less several brief shore postings, Newton spent the majority of his wartime service coaling the mighty engines of HMA Ships Sydney and Encounter.
