news!

_May 28th._--Back at W. Beach. What we heard yesterday about the
"Majestic" was only too true. She lies in front of our camp, about 300
yards from the edge of the cliff, a considerable part of her still
above water. There is much discussion as to what part of her it is
that is visible, but it appears to me to be the keel, certainly the
ram is there. The killed and drowned are between fifty and sixty.
Several I have spoken to distinctly saw the wake of the torpedo for
many hundred yards. The "Majestic" was lying in the midst of other
shipping--only supply boats of no great size, besides trawlers and
destroyers, but a gap must have been left and through this the torpedo
had found its way. The Admiral and Ashmead-Bartlett were both on
board. The latter was on the "Triumph" when she went down two days
before.

The "Majestic" was able to fire five shots at the submarine when she
rose to find her bearings, which she did about a mile off, but whether
struck or not she managed to discharge her deadly bolt, which went
home right amidships, and in about eight to ten minutes the "Majestic"
turned over and sank. Her torpedo nets were out, and as many were
scrambling up the side of the hull, as she turned over, the nets on
the starboard side swept right over, and must have accounted for many
deaths.

It is said that the form of torpedo used is most efficient at ranges
of 3000 yards or more, this long distance being necessary to get up
full momentum. One of the camp sanitary men, who tells me the story,
was on the beach as the men swam ashore, and one sailor was no sooner
on his feet than he said: "It was time the damned b---- was down; she
was twenty-five years old; any of you chaps got a clay pipe, I am
dying for a clay pipe"--all said in one breath. The "Majestic" is said
to have been built in 1902 and was an old boat, but her armament was
quite serviceable.

An enemy aeroplane crossed over our heads at 7.15 this morning, and
dropped a bomb, presumably at our C.C.S. and just missed it. Three men
were standing near; all were knocked over, one dying soon after.

_May 29th._--This forenoon I walked out to White House Farm, which is
about 3 or 3-1/2 miles up the centre of the valley, and is within a
few hundred yards of our firing trenches. It was rumoured in the
evening that these front trenches had been taken by the Turks. At the
White House there is the finest specimen of a fig tree I have yet
seen, being large a