In the new year of 1915, with the world locked in a terrible conflict, Winston Churchill conceived of a bold plan. Constantinople would be seized and Turkey knocked out of the war. The key was the Dardanelles. The British submarine E14 approached the portal of the Ottoman Empire, viewing the ominous darkness from its small conning tower, eight feet above the waves. If a submarine could manage to reach down the Dardanelles and into the Sea of Mamora it would block the Turks from using the route, potentially doing more to finish the war than any other single act. But it meant undertaking possibly the longest dive ever contemplated in a submarine. It also meant passing the wreckage of the submarines that had tried to pass that way in the days and weeks their dead buried on the beach, their survivors in captivity. The submarine’s captain, Lieutenant Commander Courtney Boyle, had a plan. It was to get as far as possible to conserve their battery before diving, to dive as deep as possible under the obstructions, but to rise to periscope depth as often as possible in the most difficult sections of the journey, where the current was most unpredictable, to make sure the submarine did not drift. He was acutely aware that his own skill and experience was now the determining factor, above all others, in his survival, the survival of the other 29 men on board, and of course of the success or otherwise of the mission. The crew had said their goodbyes. They had written their farewell letters and given them into safekeeping, knowing that the chances were now against their survival… E14 was many things. A grave, a symbol of the heroism of the crew, and a memory of those pioneering submariners of a century ago who first learned how to sail and fight underwater. It also remains the only submarine in the world which provided both its two commanding officers with the highest national decoration for bravery. “Before the war, what submarines could do was one mystery,” wrote Winston Churchill in his book The World Crisis. “What they would be ordered to do was another.” 'Unheard, Submarine E14 and the Dardanelles' is the thrilling story of that mission. It is essential reading for anyone interested in WW1. David Boyle is a British author and journalist who writes mainly about history and new ideas in economics, money, business and culture. He lives in Crystal Palace, London. His latest book is ' Who Killed The Middle Classes'. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
Author
David Boyle is the author of Blondel’s Song: The Capture, Imprisonment and Ransom of Richard the Lionheart, and a series of books about history, social change and the future. His book Authenticity: Brands, Fakes, Spin and the Lust for Real Life helped put the search for authenticity on the agenda as a social phenomenon. The Tyranny of Numbers and The Sum of Our Discontent predicted the backlash against the government’s target culture. Funny Money launched the time banks movement in the UK. David is an associate of the new economics foundation, the pioneering think-tank in London, and has been at the heart of the effort to introduce time banks to Britain as a critical element of public service reform - since when the movement has grown to more than 100 projects in the UK. He is also the founder of the London Time Bank network and co-founder of Time Banks UK. He writes about the future of volunteering, cities and business. His work on the future of money has also been covered in books and pamphlets like Why London Needs its own Currency (nef, 2000), Virtual Currencies (Financial Times, 2000), The Money Changers: Currency reform from Aristotle to e-cash (Earthscan, 2002) and The Little Money Book (Alastair Sawday, 2003). He has written for many national newspapers and magazines, and edited a range of magazines including Town & Country Planning and Liberal Democrat News. He is the editor of Radical Economics. He lives in Crystal Palace, in south London, with Sarah and Robin (two years old). He is a member of the Federal Policy Committee of the Liberal Democrats and he stood for Parliament in Regents Park and Kensington North in 2001.
