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Show AMERICAN BOY TELLS OF WAR BY SUBMARINE Gives Vivid Description of Attack on Anglo-Californian Anglo-Californian With Deck Guns After Last Torpedo Had Been Fired. This is the story of an American lad. a sailor on board a Norwegian ship sunk off the Irish coast by the German submarine sub-marine 1-39. Picked up by the submarine and landed in Helgoland, he remained eleven days on board while the undersea under-sea boat raked the Irish ocean and sent to the bottom eleven merchant ships, and came near being sunk Herself. HENRY REUTERDAHL. By CARL FRANK LIST. (Copyright. 1915, b the Star Company ) . 0 me all hands on the Gorman I submarine U-39 appeared to bo a I kindly lot. They shared every th in with me. And when a life was lost there was sorrow. I saw nothing but courtesy, brusque and hasty, of course, showed to the crews of the vessels destroyed. They made more fuss over the St. Bernard dog which was killed during the Pinking of the French schooner Hi-rondelle Hi-rondelle than if a million-dollar steamer bad gone down. And this right before the eyes of two French torpedo boats coming to begin the chase. Every command was executed instantly in-stantly and the discipline was top notch. The smallness of the boat established a certain chumminess between officers and men unknown to a big ship. I guess they thought they were likely all to die together. Looked Like Subway. Tt was now a full week since I had climbed over the shiny side of the L-39. dropped below through a hatch, found myself on board the German submarine, and stared wild-eyed about its inside, which looked to me like a subway car full of" slam-bang machinery, swimming in electric light and tended to by goops in leather suits. I found myself getting used to the life. One day I heard the captain ask the torpedo room through the tube if all was clear. The answer came, "Ja. allea fertig'-' (all ready). "Los!" (fire). As the torpedo left the tube I can hear the swish of the air-blast air-blast and feel the jerk of the discharge. All silent, on tiptoe, we are waiting to hear the report of the explosion from the torpedo striking. But there was no sound. In the periscope they saw the tracks of the torpedo abaft the fleeing steamer. Missed! And it was our last torpedo. Anglo-Californian Attacked. But when the huge Anglo-Californian, full of war material, cavalry horses and Russian reservists, hove in sight, we went for her without a single torpedo in our tubes and with but a handful of shells for the deck gun-. That meant surface work only. She heeded no warning shots. It was abont 7 a. m. Sundaj-. July 4.1 We fired into her rudder, hoping to disable dis-able her, but she kept on steering in circles. The U-39 was shaking ham mer, hammer, went the engines. Rushing Rush-ing with increasing revolutions, the Bpray falls from all sides on the boat, the pointers at the gun are drenched and their oilskins look varnished in the sunlight. The gun is eating up our last shells. But it is a wily commander on the Anglo-Californian 's bridge, working in spirals to escape. So our captain orders the gun to aim at the bridge and sweep the deck underneath. Aud the lookouts, through their glasses, note that the steamer's skipper had fallen and that someone was steering the ship flat on his stomach, grabbing the spokes of the wheel. Ran in Circles. Meanwhile boats are being lowered, but it is a mystery how they are kept from being swamped and the people spilled, as the Anglo-Californian Dover slowed once, but kept running full speed in circles. We are ordered to count the few remaining re-maining shells and to aim accurately. Wo riddle the bridge and funnels with a ftukms fire, but the last round of ammunition am-munition is gone. There is no stirrer dor; the Anglo-Californian is still zigzagging. zig-zagging. As a last resort the Maxim is brought on deck and clamped on top of the con ning tower. It begins to spit its fire of rifle bullets by the beltfull. Leas than a couple of hundred yards away we picked off the Anglo-Californian 'n crew whenever a head showed itself around the boat davits. Our fire is re turned, rifle shots are dropping on deck and spattering our conning tower. The scratches on the armor show where they hit. Destroyers to the Rescue. But it was of no avail. She had cried for help over- the wireletw. H had been hard at it for over two houm, and assistance is coming to our prey. A gray patrol yacht turned up behind her bow, followed by a swarm of destroy ers, all summoned bv the Anglo Cali-fornian's Cali-fornian's wireless. Like lightning we scattered peilmell for the conning tower hatch, and we were unshipping the Maxim and hand ing rifles below just as a shell whizzed over our heads and struck the water within fifteen feet. We literally "beat it," dropped be low the surface like a rock. We could hear the sound of the propellers of the pursuers over our heads, and could imagine im-agine their cursing, for we stayed under the water for an hour. Oh, for the torpedo we missed with yesterday! We have got to go home, we are as harmless as a kitten can't even defend ourselves. That CaJifor-nian CaJifor-nian man was 1 ' some captain. ' 1 He ought to have the iron cross. w$i& the crew. (We learned afterward in Helgoland Hel-goland that ho and nine men had fallen aDd several had been wounded.). Compelled to Race Home. Our term of duty was twenty-one days, the maximum endurance for submarines of our class. And U-39 had left Helgoland Helgo-land the 20th of June and should, according ac-cording to schedule, stay out on her station sta-tion on the Atlantic bordering the Irish sea until July 6, allowing six days for. the return to Helgoland. But we had no alternative our ammunition am-munition was exhausted, so home we raced a day sooner. Same alennoss. same keeping watch as before. When smoke showed upon the horizon we made ready to drop under, giving patrol boats and trawlers the slip. Around the west coast of Ireland, skirting Scotland, we stood on a tangent down to the Danish coast. We had no ammunition left for the deck gun and no more torpedoes, so we couldn't tackle anything big. North of Scotland, homeward bound, we sighted a submarine. But before we had a chance she had made her number num-ber with a rocket, though it was In the daytime, just as the crew was about to be sent Inside, previous to submergence. Meeting With U-20. It was the famous U-20. the conqueror on the Lusitania. Our colors were hoisted, hoist-ed, all hands craned their necks. The captain sent for Erich, the muslcinaster of the gang, and his accordion. And as we closed In on each other, Erich mounts the conning tower, crosses his legs and begins a tune of greeting. Meanwhile Mean-while the officers magaphoned for the news. 0 And what do you think Erich played? Not the natlona 1 anthem, but an old Norwegian waltz, with all hands heating time to the tune until the TJ-20 passed on a relief on our station off Cape Clear. Close to the island of Sylt, we reported (Continued on Page Nine.) AMERICAN BOY 1 TELLS OF IH jniiiE (Continued from Page One.) ourselves by wireless. Raising the wire less wae a matter of a moment. The 1 two masts were King' rt, one swung forward, for-ward, the other af I ; both man's lie flat along the lower deck, Hamped down, and a May secured forward pulls the aerial taut and the whole is ready. It was while lying on the bottom between be-tween the island of Bylt and Helgoland (hat I heard this story, which has been in my head ever since. Saved by American Flag. You remember reading in the papers that once the Lusitanla returned to England Eng-land under the American flag. As she steamed up the Irish sea for St. George's channel, a German submarine had her cold. Nothing saved the Lusltanla but the American colors floating astern. The submarine recognized the liner, but did not know the meaning of the American flag, so did not dare to fire a torpedo, though the ship was within easy range. We had to rest on the bottom a few hours so a to make Helgoland exactly at daylight July 10. No submarine is allowed to enter the harbor at night. Never have I seen a dirtier crowd of men than ours. When we came alongside along-side the submarine dock, the spick and span sailors and soldiers greeted us cordially. cor-dially. We were "see-rauberei" pirates, barbarians, and the named fitted our , looks. There was not a civilian resident on the island, save a few dock laborers, and two women nurses were the lone representatives repre-sentatives of their sex nothing but sailors, a few soldiers and artillerists, who were waiting for somebody to shoot at. After spending the night on a hulk serving as floating barracks. I took my little kit on board the destroyer S-17 for passage to "Wilhelmshaven. to where the TJ-3S would finally come for overhauling. Not Sunk by Mine. Ajb the flotilla was leaving the harbor har-bor about twelve of their newest and largest destroyers a bluejacket pointed out the siBter ship S-15 as having sunk the British battle cruiser Tiger in the last big North sea battle. He also said that the Audacious was not sunk by a mine, but by a U-boat. But that I had heard from many on board the U-3S, and it nay be untrue. Certainly my companions on the T"-39 did not speak of their own knowledge. Right before Wilhelmshaven, about seven miles out, lay the great German battle fleet. We passed right through : all hands had shifted into blue uniforms. I saw no destroyers patrolling, but a lot of trawlers outside, cruising up and down. Some of the d read nough ts iiad their torpedo nets down and at anchor. Some were moving slowly. There they lay gray and uglv under' full steam the Westfallen. Oldenburg, Koenlg the whole dreadnought flee: as if waiting for something. The Seldlitz they -singled out to me I read the name on the stern. She was supposed to have" been sunk by the British. Boy Taken Ashore. In Wilhelmshaven we, the shipwrecked,' were taken ashore by a petty officer and I was haled before all kinds of officials to find out if I was eligible for milt ! tary duty. And right here ends my adventure with the German navy. The rest of my story matters only because it deals with the kindness of the American embassador at Berlin, Mr. Gerard, and our consuls, who sent me home In fine Bristol fashion. My sleeping in a charitable institution in Hamburg and carrying the hod in Leipzig were simply the incidentals of being broke, for I had landed on German Ger-man soil without a penny, without evea one full suit of clothes or a hat. Fourteen ships in all were sunk by the TJ-39 during this cruise. Eleven went down while List was aboard the submarine. Cambus Kenneth, full-rigged ship, Norwegian. Nor-wegian. Fiery Cross, bark, Norwegian. Kakka, bark, Norwegian. Ellesmere, steamer, British. Light Body, steamer, British. Gadsby, steamer, British. Caucasian, steamer, British. Lomas. steamer, British. Boudognat, steamer, Belgian. HIrondelle. schooner. French. And one British trawler and three other steamers of the same nationality. |