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Admiral Sir Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith VC KCB KCMG

Sir Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith is best known for his success as a First World War

submariner. His war service stands testimony to his bravery, leadership and inventiveness

but he had notable experiences both before and after, later becoming Second Sea Lord,

the last Commander-in-Chief (Plymouth and Western Approaches), during the early days

of the Battle of the Atlantic and finally Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom until 1962.

Born Martin Nasmith, on April 1st 1883 in Richmond, Surrey, he was educated at Eastman’s College, Winchester.

He joined the Navy as a cadet in 1898, going through the usual postings to battleships for his first few years. He

joined the Submarine Service as a Lieutenant in 1904, three years after its inception.

Submarine A4

Submarine A4

At the age of 22 in 1905, he was given command of the petrol-engined submarine A4, but he was soon to be Court

Martialled for sinking it while at the same time being commended for pluck and devotion to duty! Submarines

were still very much in their infancy, and the crews were largely learning by experience – a very sharp learning

curve with the phrase “the quick and the dead” being entirely applicable.

A4 and her crew of 2 officers and 9 men went out one day to test a new method of underwater signalling. A

torpedo boat would go some distance from the Submarine. From the torpedo boat two different sizes of bells were

put underwater and struck alternately with an iron bar. Meanwhile A4 had trimmed down so that just the top half of

her conning tower was visible, also leaving the top of a ventilator above the water. Through the ventilator was put a

boathook, with a flag attached to its top. If a bell was heard the flag was waved– this was the cutting edge of

underwater communications in 1905!

All had gone well during a similar exercise in the Solent the day before, but conditions were rougher this time and

when the submarine porpoised and water poured in through the ventilator shaft, the submarine did not respond

quickly enough to the buoyancy changes implemented by Nasmith’s orders, which were the product of rigorous

training in darkness, and A4 plunged 90 feet to the bottom. Part of those actions included Nasmith wrapping a coat

around his arm and jamming it into the flood of water coming through the ventilator – something that had not been

part of the training!

The following text was printed in the Fleet Magazine shortly afterwards – “A plunging submarine diving at an

angle of 40 degrees, in utter darkness, water rushing in through the open ventilator with ever-increasing volume as

she descended and the pressure got greater, the fumes of chlorine gas rapidly developing, every particle of metal

sparking and giving off electric shocks when touched. In the midst of it a young lieutenant calmly giving his orders

or personally performing the necessary tasks as though nothing had happened”. Clearly they managed to bring the

submarine to the surface!

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The technicality of the Court Martial, held four days later, was that although he managed to bring the submarine to

the surface, it sank while being towed into dry dock, fortunately with no-one on board. The result was a signal sent

round the fleet from the Commander-in Chief, congratulating him on his conduct.

The Signal sent round the Fleet congratulating Dunbar-Nasmith.

A Royal Passenger

In 1907, aged 24, he took command of the submarine C7. Then late in 1911 he took command of the newly built

Submarine D4. During the Naval manoeuvres at Weymouth in May 1912, which were watched by King George V,

the weather was very foggy, so something had to be found to occupy the King until the weather cleared. Because

submarines were still such a relative novelty, it was decided that the King should be given a short trip in one.

Accompanied by Prince Albert (the future King George VI, at that time a Naval cadet), Winston Churchill (who

was first Lord of the Admiralty), and Roger Keyes (who was Commodore Submarines, and later Chief of Staff to

Admiral de Robeck at Gallipoli) the King travelled for a couple of miles submerged across Weymouth Bay.

Submarine D4

D4 was the first submarine to have a gun; a 3” one that folded into the submarine’s casing using compressed air.

The shell casing of the first shell fired from that gun and therefore the first shell ever fired from a submarine was to

be retained by Nasmith.

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The first gun on a submarine

The Inventor

As a Lieutenant in charge of the Submarine Attack School in 1912 he invented the Attack Teacher, which at that

time consisted of a periscope and small moveable model ships, moved as if seen from a submarine that was

following the student’s course orders – in other words, a simulator. That principle was used throughout the world

for training right up until the 1960's, and in fact the first computerised simulator proved to be so poor that for a

time the Navy’s submarine training apparently reverted back to the Attack Teacher!

At the same time Nasmith’s diary reveals that he developed the principle of the high power persicope lens

arrangement and he also developed the torpedo course finder, officially known as the Nasmith Director and

unofficially known as the “Is – was”. The “Is-was” was used in his original form right through the First War and

into the 1920’s. The equation for today’s computerised calculation still uses exactly the same basic principles.#

Submarine E11

World War I – The North Sea and the Baltic

In September 1914 he took command of the newly built E11 at Barrow-in-Furness, and started to operate out of

Harwich with a crew of 27 men and two other officers. Most of the various E class patrols at that time were spent

bumping along the bottom in the shallow waters of the North sea, and Nasmith had a lot of bad luck in the early

months, missing a battleship when his torpedoes went underneath, having engine problems and so forth, to the

extent that he swore not to drink or smoke a cigar until he torpedoed something.

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One night in October 1914 he and two other E Classes, one of which was commanded by Max Horton, were

ordered to make a passage through the Kattagat and into the Baltic. E11 had yet more mechanical problems, so the

other two went ahead and successfully made the passage, but by the time E11 reached the Kattagat the next night

the alarm had been raised. There was so much enemy activity that E11 tried to bluff her way through on the

surface, with navigation lights showing, which was going well until she almost collided with an enemy destroyer

coming the other way. She took avoiding action, and then tried to follow another vessel through the narrow

passage, until it quickly became obvious that this was another enemy destroyer, and on finally turning away

towards the North Sea it was clear that the destroyer was one of a group of 5 that was searching for E11.

In the waters near the Kattegat there were areas where there was not sufficient depth for a submarine to dive under

a Destroyer. This was compounded by the reality that the submarine had to surface every 12 to 16 hours to re-

charge batteries and clear the air inside. In attempting to return, he was continually hunted by destroyers, he and

the German submarine U3 fired torpedoes at one another on different occasions and there was a resolved

accusation of E11 firing torpedoes at the Danish Submarine “Havmanden” by mistake. After 6 demanding days of

trying to get through Nasmith returned to base.

Life was challenging. Consider this text from a patrol report six weeks later when E11 had been ordered to

intercept the German High Seas Fleet on its return to its base at Bremerhaven, on the Weser river. The text starts

two hours after an entry made at 4.30 a.m., which had read “ Sat on bottom for cocoa and rest”. It covers a period

of less than an hour and the entries read “Came to periscope depth. A large swell had come up, making depth-

keeping difficult. Sighted many destroyers to the northward steaming fast towards the Weser river presenting a

very broad front and obviously acting as a screen. Increased depth to 60 feet and heard destroyers passing

overhead. Periscope depth; sighted three large columns of ships which slowly developed into three enemy

battleships. More and more ships appeared, bearing down towards the Weser entrance and finally there were eleven

ships, zig-zagging and in no apparent formation, closing at moderate speed. Brought bow tubes to the ready and

proceeded to attack enemy battleship. Depth keeping on certain courses was very erratic owing to peculiar zig-zags

of enemy.”

“At the last moment of attack, as the sights were coming on for the bow tubes, the enemy altered course slightly

towards E11 thus necessitating an alteration of eight points to bring starboard beam tube to bear so as to avoid

getting any closer. Brought starboard beam tube to the ready. Fired starboard beam tube at a range of

approximately 250 yards. Did not hit and it is practically certain that the torpedo ran under the enemy as it could

not have missed for deflection at that range. Decided to attack enemy battleship approaching from the northward.

Both bow tubes were again brought to the ready and the attack was developing comfortably. Enemy altered course

straight at E11 and was very close when this was observed. Dived to 70 feet and hit the bottom having flooded

internal tanks to increase the speed of descent. Battleship passed overhead making a very load roar and shaking the

boat as it did so”. It should be noted that sitting on the bottom at 70 feet, minus the battleship’s draught of over 30

feet, minus the submarine’s height to the top of its retracted periscope of about 25 feet, left a gap of about 20 or 25

feet between E11 and a 20,000 ton battleship travelling at speed!

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The report continues “Blew off the bottom and endeavoured to catch a trim. Broke surface for 1½ minutes in the

wake of the ship that had just passed. Three battle cruisers were on the starboard beam, distance about one mile.

Three battleships were just ahead having just passed over E11 and three more battleships were close on the port

beam”. All enemy ships turned their sterns to E11 and appeared to increase speed but did not open fire. Having

given the boat a wide berth they slowly circled in towards the Weser entrance and disappeared up the river”. This

was nerve-racking action that the public would never know about for many years.

Encountering Zeppelins

Right at the start of the war, German Zeppelins rapidly became more and more of a problem, and proved very hard

to attack with aeroplanes, partly because they could fly higher, and partly because of their sheer size. So it was

decided that the threat could be best eliminated by bombing the huge Zeppelin sheds at Cuxhaven before the

Zeppelins took off. The range of aircraft at that time was very limited, and the first aircraft carriers were not

developed until 1917, so seaplanes were used for this raid on the Zeppelin sheds, which was planned for Christmas

Day, 1914.

HMS Engadine, a seaplane carrier

The seaplanes were taken by Seaplane Carriers as close as possible to the Dutch coast, to give them a good chance

of making the journey home. Experience that autumn had shown that not all the planes would make the long

journey back to the Carriers, especially if enemy submarines forced the Carriers to move away from the

rendezvous. So ten Submarines, including E11, were sent out into the North Sea to wait in a line to pick up any

aircrew who had to ditch, as well as to protect the Seaplane Carriers from which the seaplanes were launched.

After the raid E11 went to the rescue of one downed pilot and was towing his seaplane back when she then had to

go to the assistance of two more planes that were being chased by a Zeppelin. The planes both landed, one on

either side of E11, and while the pilot and observer from each were being rescued, the Zeppelin came down to a

height of about 300 ft but didn’t drop any bombs, obviously puzzled as to whether the Submarine was friend or foe.

To compound Nasmith’s immediate problems, what he assumed was a German submarine could also be seen

rapidly approaching on the surface (in fact it was later identified as another of the British submarines, which was

well out of station), so his anti-aircraft defence system was to wave at the Zeppelin, confusing it for long enough

for him to get the airmen down below and dive. As it reached a depth of 20 feet there were two loud explosions,

which was the Zeppelin dropping bombs on E11, but to no effect.

After a short pause E11 came back up to periscope depth and, seeing all was clear, Nasmith’s log reads – “Having

clothed the wet flying officers in dry submarine clothing, retired to the bottom and had Christmas dinner”.

Nasmith told a lovely story of that time, when describing life in an E-class, about how they used to bake bread

daily in a little oven on board – all their cooking was obviously done by electricity, either on a hot plate or in an

oven. He recalled that while submerged on exercise, as the Submarine’s Commander he sometimes had to make

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the difficult decision as to whether to go to full ahead, or wait until the bread had finished baking – there was not

sufficient electric power to do both!

The Sea of Marmara

World War I – The Sea of Marmara

E11 finished her duties in the North Sea at the end of March 1915, and in April made her way out to the Eastern

Mediterranean, where she was delayed by repairs to a cracked propeller shaft. Because of the poor road and rail

system in European Turkey, the Sea of Marmara became the main supply route for the Turkish forces on the

Gallipoli peninsula, and now that the Allied surface vessels had failed to force their way up the straights,

culminating in the disastrous Naval bombardment on March 18th, the only way that the supply route could be

disrupted was by using submarines. However, to get there the submarines had to pass up the Dardanelles, a 38 mile

long passage, never more than three miles wide with a four knot current running out of it. It also contained a

number of minefields and, latterly, anti-submarine nets.

The whole passage up the straights had to be made submerged, and a 45 degree and then a 90 degree bend had also

to be negotiated. At the first bend (the “Narrows”) the straights were only three-quarters of a mile wide . The, then

state-of-the art, “E” classes could only make 9 knots submerged, and at this full speed the batteries were used up in

a very short time, so they had to proceed much slower.

The first submarine to attempt the passage was B11 in December 1914, commanded by Lt Holbrook, who got as

far as the Narrows and managed to torpedo a Turkish battleship, for which he was awarded the VC. This indicates

how dangerous these waters were.

Two French submarines and a British one were lost attempting the passage over the next few months, but on the

morning of April 26th

, the day after the Gallipoli landings, the Australian “E” class submarine AE2 sent a message

by wireless that she had made it through into the Marmara, and this single piece of news was used to boost the

morale of the ANZAC troops struggling to gain a foothold on the peninsular the day after the allied landings, when

withdrawal was being seriously considered. Sadly AE2 was sunk in the Marmara during that same patrol.

In late April Lt Cdr Courtney Boyle in E14 was the next to make the passage up the straights, and on May 18th

was

the first submarine to make it successfully out again, for which Boyle was also awarded the Victoria Cross.

By this time the repairs to E11 had been completed, and she was now based in Mudros, a natural harbour on the

island of Lemnos, 30 miles from Gallipoli, which was the forward supply base during the period of occupation.

From there Nasmith took a flight over the straight in a Niueport plane, piloted by Commander Samson of No 3

Naval Air Squadron based on Tenedos. He did this before each of the three patrols that he made, to see just exactly

where the minefields, Guns and later the anti-submarine nets, were.

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A Nieuport plane in which Dunbar-Nasmith carried out his reconnaissance.

Once under way up the straights in a submarine, a lot of the passage would be made in daylight. As soon as the

feather of a periscope showed on the surface it would be bombarded, torpedoed and possibly rammed. During the

entire 38 mile passage up the straights Nasmith reckoned on checking his position through the periscope only five

or six times. There was no time to consult with the navigator – the Commander had to make his own snap

decisions. It was quite an acceptable method of navigation in those days to bump along the bottom, and on the way

up the straights a bump at the expected time and the expected depth could give a helpful confirmation of location,

without having to surface.

Through the Straights

Having had time for a brief conversation with Boyle, Nasmith set off up the straights in E11 in the early hours of

the next day, May 19th

, diving just before 4 am. The journey up proved to be much quicker than anticipated,

because although there was a surface current coming out of the straights, which everyone knew about, 20 ft down

there was actually a two to three knot current of sea water going up the straights. When looking astern through the

periscope at one stage he was amazed to see the wake from it going away out at a completely different angle to the

direction the submarine was travelling, this caused by the current on the surface going in a different direction to

that running 20 foot down.

They finally surfaced after 17 hours submerged, during which time they often heard the mooring wires of mines

scraping along the side. These long periods submerged brought a yellow foggy tinge to the air in the submarine

which was not helped by the rows of buckets used as toilets which were lined up behind the engines once they

were full - anyone who had to move was made to do so in slow motion, as in the early days there were very great

concerns about what the effect of low oxygen levels might have on the heart.

Into Action

Within a couple of days they were able to perform a trick played on them by a German submarine in the North Sea

the year before. They captured a Turkish dhow and, having trimmed right down so that just the conning tower was

showing, made fast alongside. They were then completely invisible from the shore, and could steam up and down

along the coast until they sighted something worth attacking, at which point they would cast off and head towards

it. This gave the crew an opportunity to get a bit of fresh air and to stretch their legs, as well as to re-stock their

supplies of fresh food and water.

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Alongside a Turkish Dhow

They used this trick in all the patrols, but during the first patrol they did not have a deck-mounted gun, and so they

could only sink ships by torpedo, demolition charges or by setting fire to them. It quickly became clear that a gun

was vital, and for the second patrol a 12-pounder was fitted, which was replaced by a four-inch gun for the third

patrol.

The temptation to be the first enemy vessel to enter the harbour of Constantinople (now Istanbul) for 450 years was

a great one, and four days into her first patrol, having just taken the first picture ever taken through the periscope

of a submarine, E11 saw a Turkish torpedo gunboat at anchor just outside. The gunboat was duly torpedoed but,

just as she was sinking, she fired a shot that went right through E11’s attack periscope, rendering it completely

useless. Undaunted, they took the submarine some way away from Constantinople, and sheltered round the back of

an island.

The periscope after being hit by a Turkish Gunboat.

Having taken one or two photographs for posterity, they just got on with the job, which involved lighting a fire of

cotton waste around the base of the periscope, and once the metal had expanded enough they were able to unscrew

the top section and plug the hole that remained with a wooden bung covered with canvas. The periscope, along

with other of E11’s artifacts, can be seen at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport.

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The next day they sank a number of steamers carrying supplies over to Gallipoli, and finally tried to torpedo a

paddle steamer laden with barbed wire, but the captain kept the ship’s stern pointing towards E11, eventually

beaching her on the shore. E11 closed in to try and board her, at which point a troop of Turkish cavalry appeared

on the top of this cliff, and rifle fire was exchanged between E11 and the cavalry. There must be few, if any, other

instances in world history of a submarine engaging Cavalry!

The next day, E11 did get into Constantinople harbour and fired two torpedoes at a steamer lying alongside the

ammunition store. The first one malfunctioned, and went round and round the harbour on the surface, spreading

complete panic ashore, as well as considerable concern in E11, before blowing a hole in a jetty, while the other hit

the steamer.

As this was going on, the fierce currents coming down from the Black Sea through the Bosphorus swept E11

sideways, round and round, and finally aground, 40 ft underwater. Nasmith had no idea which side of the harbour

he had been swept onto, and therefore which way led to escape. Surfacing, or even risking using the one remaining

periscope, was clearly not an option, but just then the 800-ton submarine started to be swept round by the huge

force of the current. So, under the intense gaze of everyone around him he quietly watched the compass to see

which way the submarine was swinging, and from that deduced which side of the harbour he had been swept over

to.

He then waited until the bows were pointing in what he had decided was the right direction, judged when he felt

the moment was right to start the motors, slithered down to about 80 ft and then turned in what he had worked out

ought to be the right direction to take them all out of danger, bumping along the bottom. E11’s patrol report later

simply read – “On bringing her to the surface about 20 minutes later she was found to be well clear of the

harbour”.

Having sunk the gunboat off Constantinople Nasmith was now able to go back to enjoying his cigars and pipe. He

had stuck to that earlier pact with himself and he was able to share these indulgences with his First Lieutenant, Guy

D’Oyly Hughes and Lieutenant Robert Brown his Navigating Officer .

Having sunk a gunboat Dunbar-Nasmith was able to go back to enjoying his cigars and pipe.

Retrieving Torpedoes

The supply of torpedoes was very limited. It was accepted practice that torpedoes were set to sink if they missed

their target, so that they didn’t act as floating mines, endangering neutral shipping. But Nasmith decided that in the

Marmara all the ships were enemy ones, and he had to be able to use his torpedoes again if he missed. So they were

set to float, and once the activity surrounding an unsuccessful attack had died away, E11 would surface and find

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the torpedo. Someone would then have to swim out to it (initially Nasmith, and thereafter, Guy D’Oyly Hughes)

and delicately unscrew the firing pistol to make the torpedo safe.

The first time they retrieved a torpedo they used the standard dockyard method of getting it back in to the

submarine, in other words opening the deck hatch, unbolting and removing supporting beams, and then lowering it

through the hatch, which left the submarine unable to dive until the process was complete.

Circumstances clearly concentrated minds to come up with a better solution, which turned out to be swimming the

torpedo round to the stern tube and putting it in nose first. Ropes were put round the tail of the torpedo, it was

partly pulled into the tube and then sucked fully in by activating the tube’s draining mechanism. The tube door was

then closed and the tube pumped dry, after which the torpedo could be removed from the stern tube, transported

through the submarine on the internal overhead rail, re-armed and loaded back into one of the bow tubes ready for

a second or even a third run. At any time during this loading process the submarine could dive quickly without

coming to any harm.

In fact what often caused a torpedo to apparently miss was that the nose of the torpedoes at that time were very

blunt, and the firing pistol was too short, which meant that when the torpedo hit a ship whose underside in that era

was commonly quite gently sloped towards the keel, the firing pistol did not actually make contact. So when the

torpedo was reloaded back into the submarine the brass nose was removed and given a little treatment with a

hammer from the inside, to restore it to its former aerodynamic shape!

After a patrol of 21 days one of the two propeller shafts was again cracked, and the electric motor powering the

other shaft had developed a complete short circuit, so it was decided to return down the straights. They had kept

back two torpedoes, because one of the aims of the patrol was to sink a Turkish battleship which was known to be

anchored in the straights and shelling Allied troops from there with a howitzer.

The Dardanelles

The Narrows

E11 submerged at about 3 o’clock in the morning, and went down the straights looking in every possible

anchorage on the way, passing a large transport a little way above the Narrows. She went through the Narrows, the

place where a number of submarines had come to grief in the strong currents and differing densities of water, and

after which the homeward passage was virtually guaranteed. But having seen no sign of a battleship, E11 turned

round, went back up through the Narrows, found the transport, torpedoed and sank it, and then went down through

the Narrows and the minefield again – and all of this with one propeller shaft cracked and the other electric motor

liable to give out at any time!

Having passed safely back through the Narrows, everyone on board heard a loud scraping noise as if the

submarine had run aground, which in that depth of water was impossible. E11 came up to just below the surface,

and Nasmith had a look through the conning tower scuttle to see what the cause might be, and to quote from his

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patrol report “Observed a large mine preceding the periscope by about 20 feet, apparently hung up by its moorings

on the port hydroplane”.

Because of the shore guns all along both sides of the straights he could not surface, so he did not let on to anyone

else on board, and continued for another hour with the bottom of the mine banging off the side of the submarine

from time to time. At last he was able to surface, 13 hours after starting into the straights, and by leaving the bow

submerged and going full astern the wash from the propellers allowed the mine to fall ahead of the submarine.

For this patrol he was awarded the Victoria Cross, largely due to his persistence in turning his mechanically

unsound vessel back up through the Narrows on the way out of the Marmara, and the whole of the rest of the crew

were also decorated.

E11 and crew after the First Patrol.

A Second Patrol

Repairs to E11 meant a rest on board HMS Adamant, the E class’s depot ship prior to a second patrol starting on

August 5th 1915, which was timed to coincide with the August landings at Suvla.

Within half an hour of diving to go up the Narrows, E11’s patrol report records that - “a mine was heard to bump

heavily along the starboard side while at a depth of 70 ft in the Kephes mine field”. Imagine this at the very start of

the patrol, given the way the previous one had ended! Furthermore the Turks were by now more aware of the

submarine threat, and had suspended huge anti submarine nets across the Narrows, going down to about 110ft.

This was heading towards the maximum depth that the E classes could reach.

The technique was to run full speed at the net. The submarine had a jumping wire running from the bow to the top

of the periscope housing and down to the stern. Usually, if the submarine pushed hard enough, the net stretched

and finally broke. One of E11’s bow shackles which connected to the jumping wire broke under the strain of

parting a net on her way out. Not all the E classes were so lucky. Sometimes they got tangled up and had to surface

when their batteries ran out after many hours battling back and forth, or the movement of the bouys on the surface

gave away the trapped submarines position and explosive charges were dropped down on top of them.

2 hours after encountering the mine E11’s log reads – “caught net across the bow – the boat was lifted from 110

feet to 90 ft and her weight much reduced. A crack was then heard which was either the wires parting or slipping

up clear of the bow which was subsequently found to be brightly polished from the top to a depth of seven feet”.

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The problems encountered in passing through the nets did not just relate to possibly getting tangled up in them. As

more submarines successfully made the passage, one passed right through the hole made by a previous submarine

and hit the shore on the other side, fortunately to no ill effect. One can imagine the crew bracing themselves for the

pull of the net, which never came!

Having got up into the Marmara one of the first priorities was to make radio contact with the outside world which,

when the radios were very temperamental and only had a range of 30 miles, was quite an undertaking. It meant

having to come down into the narrow western corner of the Marmara to get within range of the destroyer HMS Jed

and then having to erect a radio mast with a complicated arrangement of wires, often in heavy weather, though for

obvious reasons preferably in darkness On one occasion E11 had two bombs dropped near her by an aeroplane

while the mast was up, but Nasmith’s assessment of the situation was that it was unlikely to be carrying any more

bombs, so he ignored it and completed his transmission, packed up the aerial, and then submerged; fortunately his

assessment of the situation was correct.

Within three days of starting this second patrol they torpedoed the Turkish battleship “Harradin Barbarossa” which

was heading down to Gallipoli early one morning to start shelling the Allied trenches, and the one torpedo that E11

discharged must have started a fire near an ammunition magazine, because after a few minutes there was a huge

explosion and the ship rolled over and sank. The safety key from that very torpedo was kept by Nasmith..

The Turkish battleship Harradin Barbarossa which exploded and rolled over when torpedoed by E11.

E11 now had a four-inch gun, which transformed her ability to disrupt supplies running across the Marmora to

Gallipoli, allowing her stay on patrol for much longer and do a lot more damage. Not only could shipping be

destroyed, but they also started shelling columns of troops marching down the peninsula along the only convenient

road to the front at Gallipolli.

The new four-inch gun which transformed E11’s ability to disrupt Turkish supplies.

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Disruption to this route by E11 meant that large-scale troop movements had to be restricted to night time, with all

the problems and inefficiencies that entailed. The Turks therefore started using the much longer rail route which

branched off the Constantinople to Baghdad railway, and then ran round the East side of the Marmara to Chanak,

from where troops and supplies were then embarked across the Narrows. The Turkish command were now forced

to react to changing circumstances on the front line much more slowly, just because of the actions of a small

number of submarines.

Commando Raid

The railway also ran close to the coast at many points, so once the daytime road and shipping traffic across the

Marmara died down E11 started shelling the trains on the railway, and any bridges they could find. Any damage

they did was repaired quite quickly, and so D’Oyly Hughes persuaded Nasmith to allow him to make what was the

first commando raid ever launched from a submarine. This consisted of him making a raft from bits of sunken

dhow, on which he put his clothes, two barrels of explosives and a pistol. They chose a spot where a railway bridge

lay reasonably close to the coast, and D’Oyly swam ashore after dark. Having made his way up a steep cliff he

headed along to the long bridge but he came upon three soldiers guarding the line, so he had to make his way back

along the line until he found a culvert where he placed the explosives. In those days the fuse for the explosives was

ignited by a firing pistol, and the loud bang from that brought the guards running after D’Oyly Hughes, resulting in

a chase of over a mile along the line.

D’Oyly Hughes with his raft.

The charge successfully destroyed the line, and, having shaken off his pursuers, he made his way down a gully to

the shore as dawn was breaking, but as he swam out to sea in the dawn mist to his pre-arranged collection point he

saw what he thought were three small boats looking for him. So he swam back to the shore, scrambled along a little

way and hid in a 4 foot high cave before swimming out again, only to discover that the three boats had actually

been the bow, gun and conning tower of E11 showing through the mist. The first lieutenant of another “E” class

submarine attempted a similar expedition shortly afterwards and was never seen, or even heard of, again.

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The cave in which D’Oyly Hughes hid from the Turks.

As another first, a secret agent accompanied E11 up into the Marmara at the start of her third patrol and was landed

by boat at night after a three-day delay, because his collapsible boat, which had been lashed to the upper deck for

the journey up the narrows, had been washed overboard in a storm. This meant that they then had to capture a

dhow and take its dinghy, and use that to land the agent.

The procedure here was the same that they had used in all three patrols, which was to store the captured dhow’s

crew on board the submarine, either on the casing, or on a very busy day down below as well. The dhow would

then either be set on fire or sunk by gunfire, and the remains left behind.

The process would be repeated during the day until things got too cramped on the submarine, after which the

accumulation of prisoners would be loaded onto the next dhow to be stopped by a warning shot, and the lucky

dhow would be sent on its way, probably after having re-stocked E11 with fresh food and water for another few

days.

On one patrol cases of chocolates were taken on board from a captured vessel, and whenever any Turkish women

were among the passengers in a captured enemy vessel, they were each presented with a box of chocolates. One of

Nasmith’s obituaries related that “This gallantry was much appreciated and allayed feminine hysteria”!

Prisoners from a Dhow on E11’s deck.

15

A Dhow being sunk.

Gun Trouble

All this use of the gun exposed a weakness in the mounting, and the gun mounting fractured while shelling a

steamer, throwing the gunlayer overboard, almost followed by the gun. However, as with the periscope in the first

patrol, they simply got stuck in and had to work out a way to repair it themselves. Within 24 hours they had filed

away and shaped the fracture, removed the top half of the gun’s pedestal and re-mounted the gun on the lower half,

which worked perfectly well for the remaining 25 days of the patrol, although the gunlayer had to crouch down

quite low to do his job!

Repairing the gun mounting.

Further Patrols

Another expedition in Constantinople harbour in December coincided with a heated argument that was taking place

on the quayside between a number of high-ranking Turkish officials who were standing beside a large steamer that

had just arrived laden with coal. They could not agree how this desperately-needed cargo should be distributed

around the city, but a well-aimed torpedo from E11 solved the problem for them.

As time went on there were fewer and fewer supply ships that were prepared to risk being attacked by the

patrolling submarines, and so Nasmith and his crew had time for a bit of relaxation. It is easy to forget, among all

the terrible things that were going on in that area at the time, that the eastern Mediterranean has a very pleasant

climate during the summer and autumn, and so any chance to get clean by swimming in the sea was gratefully

accepted.

16

Dunbar-Nasmith relaxing with a handstand while the crew goes swimming.

Accommodation consisted of two bunks, for the three officers on board, and the men just slept where they could.

The officers’ wardroom was just a section of the Control room with a curtain round it. In E11’s last patrol she was

in the Marmara from the 6th

of November until the 23rd

of December – over six weeks the air in the submarine

became extremely stale and so whenever time allowed, “hands to bathe” was a very popular cry, and every

opportunity was taken to wash clothes and give the submarine a good clean.

Interior of E11.

The officer’s wardroom – a section of the control room, with a curtain!

E11 carried just enough diesel to last for a six weeks patrol. When diving to any depth, as the submarine came to

between 70 ft it was as if she hit an invisible barrier. She had to take on upwards of an extra 8 tonnes of water in

her ballast tanks to pass though it. But it transpired that throughout the whole of the Marmara there was a layer of

relatively less dense fresh water lying on top of salt water, and by submerging at night and taking on a ton or so of

extra ballast, E11 could shut down all the engines, and with the exception of one person on watch the whole crew

could have a completely undisturbed night’s sleep sitting on top of the saltwater layer, suspended 70 ft below the

surface, with another 400 ft of water below them, never moving vertically by more than a few inches during the

night.

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However, during their last patrol the weather was commonly atrocious resulting in some unorthodox clothing,

including a leather chauffer’s coat worn by Nasmith. During the Gallipoli campaign there was terrible loss of life

on both the Allied and Turkish sides from frostbite during the storm in the last days of November 1915. The storm

stirred up the waters of the Marmara to such an extent that, in the bay in which E11 had taken shelter for two days,

most of the time under water, this layer of dense water rose up to only 20 ft below the surface.

November 1915. Atrocious weather and Dunbar-Nasmith wraps up in a chauffer’s coat.

More fun was had by the crew in the last patrol when they made a dummy periscope out of the loom of an oar, with

a circular cigarette tin as its lens. The contraption was then slightly weighted so that it showed the right distance

above the water, and they would let the dummy periscope go, retire to a safe distance, and wait for some passing

interest to come along and try and ram it, very occasionally with spectacular results.

It is amazing how much of daily life Nasmith recorded on camera, including the ships that were sunk, such as the

three masted Barque, which was full of hay for the Turkish horses, and a complete sequence of the Steamer

“Bosphorus” sinking, having been hit by a torpedo.

Sinking of the Steamer “Bosphorus”.

E11’s time in the Marmara is perfectly summarised by the caption which still accompanies her Ensign, and reads –

“This Ensign was flown by H M Submarine E11 during her three cruises into the Sea of Marmara and her attack on

Constantinople, making six passages through the minefields and four through the net obstructions of the

Dardanelles. E11 spent 96 days in the Marmara destroying 94 ships consisting of one Battleship, 2 gun boats, one

destroyer, 26 steam ships and 64 sailing vessels. The Ensign remains in the treasured care of the Dunbar-Nasmith

family.

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E11 proudly returns from her First Patrol, ensign flying.

Once the main evacuations from Gallipoli had taken place there was not the same reason for the “E” classes to be

in the Marmara, so E11 went up the Greek port of Salonika, for a complete rest apart from taking out visiting

parties of French and British army officers for short trips on the famous submarine.

Submarine Successes and Sacrifices

In a campaign of just over eight months, nine submarines had passed up the straights; E11 and E14 three times, E2

and E12 twice, to make a total of 15 patrols. Four British, one Australian and three French submarines were sunk,

that is 8 submarines; half the total that tried, either in the straights or in the Marmara. The submarines sank a total

of 252 vessels ranging from Battleships to small dhows, as well as creating havoc ashore with their guns, and just

under 40% of that total was sunk by Martin Nasmith. Seaborne traffic through the Marmara, needed to reinforce

the enemy lines at Gallipoli, slowed to a trickle, and a quantity of enemy resources hugely out of proportion to the

small number of submarines, resources which were much needed elsewhere, had to be diverted to the Marmora to

try and address the situation.

Winston Churchill, in his book “World Crisis” said “The Naval History of Britain contains no page more

wonderful than that which records the prowess of her submarines at the Dardanelles”.

E11 enjoys a hero’s welcome.

Promotion to Captain in 1916, aged 33 and after just one year as a Commander, came while Nasmith was in

command of the submarine J4, which was followed with postings as captain of various Submarine flotillas. The

Ambrose flotilla which he commanded from 1917 was latterly based in Queenstown, south west Ireland, where he

was involved in training American Submarine crews “on the job” as they worked with British submarines to

protect the convoys coming across the Atlantic.

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Nasmith becomes Dunbar-Nasmith

Martin Nasmith from Surrey became Martin Dunbar-Nasmith from Morayshire for the best of reasons. In 1920, in

Elgin, Morayshire, he married Beatrix Justina Dunbar Dunbar-Dunbar-Rivers, of Glen of Rothes, who was

descended from the shipping owner Duncan Dunbar, whose family in turn farmed just outside Forres, also in

Morayshire. An entailment in a previous Dunbar-Dunbar Will, inserted as a result of the activities of a certain male

black sheep of the family, stated that the Estate was always to be passed down the female line, and that the

surname had to be retained. This duly happened for a couple of generations, but Nasmith’s new wife soon took the

view that perhaps honour had been satisfied by this time and the idea of being Mrs Beatrix Justina Dunbar Dunbar-

Dunbar-Rivers-Nasmith did not appeal, so early in 1923 a compromise of Dunbar-Nasmith was settled. They were

to have two sons, Rear Admiral David Dunbar-Nasmith and the distinguished architect Sir James Dunbar-Nasmith

and a daughter Evelyn Dorothy.

Glen of Rothes, family home of Beatrix Justina Dunbar Dunbar-Dunbar-Rivers.

After the Armistice

After the Armistice in 1918, conflict around the world was far from over. 3 Victoria Crosses were awarded in June

and August 1919 to commanders of Coastal Motor Boats (themselves under the command of Martin Nasmith’s

flotilla) who attacked and torpedoed the Bolshevik fleet in Kronstadt Harbour in Sweden on two different

occasions, and in the early 1920’s the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean was very unstable.

In 1921, after a short spell in command of the battleship Vindictive, Martin Nasmith took command of the

Battleship HMS Iron Duke, which was Admiral Jellicoe’s flagship from which he commanded the 150-plus ships

of the Grand Fleet during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea in 1916. By 1921 the “Iron Duke” was the Flagship

of Admiral Sir John de Robeck, who took over as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean fleet shortly after the

start of the Gallipoli campaign in 1915, and he continued in that post until the middle of 1921.

Turkish Troubles

After the 1918 Armistice the British had given a large part of Western Turkey to the Greeks, for the help that they

gave to the allies during the war, much to the anger of Kemal Attaturk and his Turkish nationalist followers.

Attaturk had led the Turkish troops against the allies at Gallipoli, and after the war Sir John was largely responsible

for keeping peace in the area – he was a very strong character as well as a born diplomat. During the crisis in 1922

Martin Nasmith again found himself going up the narrows and into Constantinople, this time as Captain of the Iron

Duke.

A year or so after giving Western Turkey to the Greeks in 1919, oil was discovered in Eastern Turkey, and

suddenly the friendship of Mustapha Kamel became rather more important to the British government than the

safety of the Greeks who had moved into Western Turkey. Coincidentally Admiral de Robeck was replaced as C-

in-C Mediterranean by the time things came to a head, and his established and controlling influence in that area

was lost.

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There is a horrendous history of persecution and massacre of Greeks and Armenians in Turkey from the late

1800’s right through until as recently as the mid-1950’s. Somewhere between 100,000 and 150,000 Greeks and

Armenians were murdered by the Turkish Nationalists in the second part of 1922 alone, in the Western part of

Asiatic Turkey. This culminated in a four day orgy of violence from the 9th

to the 13th September in the city of

Smyrna, now called Izmir, which was finally set alight on the 13th

.

A flotilla of 27 British and American warships stood by through this time with orders not to intervene. However

they were allowed to ferry as many refugees off from the quaysides as they could, and the final evening is best

described in a book by Captain Augustus Agar VC, who writes – “Smyrna waterfront would have held its own

against the imagination of Dante. Many brave deeds were performed, but shining through them in letters of gold

were the actions of two young naval Captains, Martin Dunbar-Nasmith VC, and Charles JC Little. The former,

placing himself in front of the muzzles of Turkish machine guns, directed the lighters containing thousands of

refugees from the water front to safety, while the latter led a party of sailors through the burning city, returning

with the inmates of the European maternity home, snatched from certain death, and carried them through the

flaming streets to the security of the White Ensign.” What is just as remarkable as the bravery of the many British

sailors involved at the time is that the British flag, and the presence of British uniforms, still then commanded

sufficient respect to create a small oasis of order amongst the surrounding chaos.

The Smyrna waterfront aflame as refugees are rescued by Dunbar-Nasmith and his men.

Further Promotion

From Iron Duke Dunbar-Nasmith went to be Director of the Trade Division at the Ministry of Defence, and from

January 1926 spent three years as the Captain of Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. As a Rear Admiral he became

the first Flag Officer (Submarines) to have actually been a submariner, and as a Vice Admiral he was Commander-

in-Chief East Indies fleet from 1932 to 1934, during which time he was knighted.

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In 1932 he wrote to his son David, who was at School in England, to say that they had visited a fascinating spot

where the local arabs had come out in small boats to take them to the shore, as there was no port there. The locals

were becoming very excited as they thought there was a good chance of discovering oil. The name of this place

was Bahrain.

Then in 1935 he became Second Sea Lord for the next three years, being heavily involved in the preparations for

what was clearly going to be an inevitable war with Germany. While in this post he also had the experience in 1938

of presenting the King’s Dirk to a young Chief Cadet Captain who was one of the two top cadets at Dartmouth to

receive one that year. It was unique, because the young man was his son David, who later rose to the rank of Rear

Admiral.

Father and son, the son later rising to the rank of Rear Admiral.

World War II

As a full Admiral, Dunbar-Nasmith became Commander-in-chief Plymouth and Western Approaches until May

1941. This was during the dark days of the early stages Battle of the Atlantic and he was now dealing with a

submarine menace instead of creating one! He was the last person to hold this post before it was split into two

separate commands. This split was in order to deal more effectively with the huge and unrelenting demands of

overseeing the longest battle of the Second World War, which lasted from the day war broke out in 1939 until the

day peace was declared in 1945.

In December 1941 he retired voluntarily, to allow those below him to gain higher command, but in 1942, at the

height of the Blitz, he came out of retirement and was appointed Flag Officer, London, with the rank of Rear

Admiral. He continued in this post until the end of the war and on until 1946.

Post War Activities

Shortly after the end of the war in Europe Dunbar-Nasmith became Vice Admiral of the United Kingdom, which

was an honorary appointment, a Deputy Lord Lieutenant and later Vice Lord Lieutenant of Moray, and for six

years after the Second World War he was Vice Chairman of the Imperial War Graves Commission (now the

Commonwealth War Graves Commission), during which time he travelled extensively abroad to ensure that

existing graveyards were maintained and new ones established wherever men had fallen throughout the world in

various conflicts, including Gallipoli.

Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith, a most extraordinary, courageous and most modest man died aged 84 on the 29th

June 1965 in Dr Gray’s Hospital, Elgin and is buried in that town.

The incredible bravery and resourcefulness of Sir Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith VC KCB KCMG during 1915 is

commemorated by a plaque at Richmond, Surrey and by a Portland Stone slab at Rothes war memorial, in the area

of Scotland that became his home, while the story of his life stands testimony to his achievements and an

inspiration to so many.

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Admiral Sir Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith VC KCB KCMG (1883-1965)

Moray’s War is most grateful to Duncan Dunbar-Nasmith, grandson of Admiral Sir Martin Eric Dunbar-Nasmith

VC KCB KCMG for the excellent access to the photographs accompanying this article which is an edited version

of the presentation delivered by Duncan Dunbar-Nasmith to submariner officers undergoing training.