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Dawn found the Grand Fleet in the empty
seas. The wounded had been collected and were under treatment.
On the hard hit ships the sick bays were pitiful places of mingled
horror and heroism. Able Seaman Victor Hayward roamed about the
battered Tiger.
What a scene it was! It was very much
like that painting of the Victory's cockpit, ill lit, with mutilated
bodies everywhere. The few cots were full, all hammock places
occupied. The remainder were lying on mess tables and on the hard
steel lino-covered decks, pitiful wrecks of this terrible action.
I stopped by the hammock of a seaman acquaintance of mine, lit
a cigarette and put it between his lips. He had lost both arms
but seemed remarkably cheerful. Able Seaman Victor Hayward,
HMS Tiger
Many of the dead were still to be found
where they had fallen and the task of collection and identification
was one that required a strong stomach. As part of his duties
the Reverend Thomas Bradley went down the portside of the Tiger,
where he found the bodies still strewn around the 6" magazine.
The sight was terrible. There was a
considerable amount of water. There in all of this, mixed up with
rubbish and debris were bodies and bits of bodies. One had no
head as far as I could see, nor legs, the left arm was gone and
the right lay near with its hand hanging off. It was a mere trunk
– quite naked – for the blast tore the clothes off. You could
feel the little pieces of limbs under your feet as you walked
ankle deep in water. It was quite dark save for the torch we had.
Later on I got together a stretcher party to try and get the pieces
away, but when they saw what they had to tackle they slunk away,
and I must admit I was not sorry. Reverend Thomas Bradley,
HMS Tiger
The effect of shells, which had exploded
in what were in effect crowded rooms, was to create a true charnel
house. Friends and shipmates, fellow human beings were rendered
down to their constituent parts and splattered around with no
respect for human dignity or any concept of decency.
Beatty signalled to the Battlecruiser Fleet
that all preparations should be made for a traditional burial
at sea for many of the corpses. As ever, there was a gruesomely
practical traditional naval method described by Petty officer
Edwin Downing.
Two gratings were used, manned by two
ratings each, one at the head the other at the foot. Two corpses
are committed to the deep at once, one body is placed on each
grating covered with a Union Jack and then bourne to the stern-most
part of the upper deck, then together the two gratings are tilted
and the bodies slide off the grating and into the sea. And so
the process is continued until the whole 186 bodies had found
a watery grave. The 'Sailors' Anthem' (Eternal Father Strong to
Save) having been sung with many a sad heart, the ceremony closes.
Petty officer Edwin Downing
Now the battle was over. But who had won?
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