Chapter 52 – Dacre

Many details in this chapter are taken directly from Lieutenant-Commander Dacre Stoker’s autobiographical account Straws in the Wind . Some wording changes have been included, but details of the chance meeting with British submarine E14 on 29 April, then the failed rendezvous on 30 April followed by the sinking of AE2 are generally as described by Dacre Stoker. Some of Stoker’s thoughts and words are included directly. Events covered in this chapter are described on pages 120-142.

In the first volume of his memoirs, The Narrow Seas to the Dardanelles 1910-1915 , Roger Keyes states that it was some time before it was learned how the submarine AE2 was lost after reaching the Marmara Sea. Keyes also provides a likely explanation as to why AE2 lost control, due to the effects of a strata of fresh water from the surface to a depth of around ten fathoms (60 feet or 18 metres), being a lighter density than that of the sea generally (p. 147). Keyes also states that after the encounter with AE2, E14 continued to sink a number of vessels before returning safely, including a transport carrying 6,000 troops of whom none survived (p.149).