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Show I- AiSCG)GlAi) j; i Three American Heroes. Tne Enlisn admiral tv court a v,m ruV'l to y.vpp .-nieri' ;tn sa;!or. Rni?-?rt f- ev-'is-snn, riiomns Y c;cn hi.; .John rininn. Mi.- ' tor sal v. n 2: o'e:i.nun:r tua: ui- lant alter u hnd been a:anionf-d bv iit-r captain and t nc rest ol ti;e pivw during dur-ing a pale wmle on a vovaxe irom Nuv lork to kiiELifind. Connie! tor the salvors said thfir story i was one wnich ouht to live in tne nirn- ; ones o inarnn r.-. ir ami;ei l-A-t:,. I president or tne court, in ni::-,' nia-- I merit, said the coura-t-. lino j:viT . and i a usence uf all pnv-ural tear disula v-i i li thesfi men romnvindr-d irsu;ir.l a- I miration. J r.o muant. which worth : H'",.H, was almost ceriamlv saved irom ! total loss hv tuem. i f erv--u;.-nn. m u-lnntr 1ns exinencs to! a L'aiiv Chronicle representative, said : I I m an American cir.zfi. out wasn't born in tjlasgnw ior n it inner. I knew' I the brnish uovenniieat wanted mat! Mini. inat was enoaiin lor me. T mane up my mind to pet her in somehow or die in the attempt." Thp Vigilant llt New York on 'October ''-', bound for Lliistol via Canadian ports. She left St. Johns on October -7 in bad weather. "Captain Ime, a Xew Yorker, was boss, and 1 was second officer," said P'erpusson. "We made slow prop i but we covered a fair amount or" ground, only the pale didn't down at all. About TOO or S"'0 miles off the Irish coast tne captain decided on sendinp out t he S. O. S. This was on October '21. On, October 29 the pale was one of the fiercest I've run up apainst. "We yot a message from the Holland-American liner. Rynlund saying" she would he along with help about t:3u in the evening". "The Vigilant had been fitted with stronp wooden whalebacks to strengthen her against the winter Atlantic. Her triple-expansion engines were pretty pov- erful, but the captain reckoned she was a bit heavy. He was afraid she might turn turtle, and when that message came from the Rynland he gave orders that the Vigilant was to be abandoned. I didn't believe it when I hoard the order. I went below and saw the crew. They were Americans, Norwegians and Spanish. Span-ish. 'Say,' I asked, 'won't some of you chaps stay on with me?" They thought I was kidding. "Well, about 6:30 the Rynland came stumbling along. I -went down to tbe engineers to find Welch, the oiler, and looked him straight in the face. 'Show your Yankee spirit and stay with me.' 1 said. That got him. He said he would. Smith, the fireman, agreed to stay on as well, and the t bree of us told the captain wdiat we meant to do. 'You're fools,' said the captain. 'What's the sense of throwing your lives away ?' 'Well, I replied, 'if I lose my clones and my instruments I might as well lose my life. Me for the ship.' The captain said he would take the ship's papers, and with that he left us. "We stood there and looked at the waves forty feet high. We watched the officer in charge of the Rynland 's boats take off our crew. 'You'd better come along,' said the officer. 'Nothing doing,' I said. We quitted company. The liner went her way and we went ours. "Welch went down to look a fter the engines a pretty tough job for one.man. Smith stripped to keep the fires going. I stuck to the bridge. I couldn't get a drink of water, the food was all go tie, and I kept myself going by chewing American tobacco. Most of the time that night was prety bad. Five o'clock came next morning and f sighted a patrol. pa-trol. gave my name, but she couldn't get near, and was lost again very soon in those seas, which were like great walls that kept roiling up to us and then tumbling tum-bling down on the tug "Then the steering gear got jammed, I shouted down the speaking tube and Welch tried to get up. but he got jammed himself in the ventilator and couldn't get near. There was no food and no drink and we were sick with tiredness and hunper. The seas all around were getting bigger every moment and at night time the worst ca me. The ship was struck by the biggest sea she had had yet on starboard side and heeled right over. It didn't seem to me Id get her in after all. The lashings on deck snapped like cotton, the anchor broke loose, the dynamo dyna-mo shaft in the engine room was smashed and all the liuhts went out. "Then another sea, came on the port I side and forced the boateback to some-! some-! tiling like a level keel and she got her balance again. Say, that was somellnng ; like a miracle. It gets me sure how it j happened, but "happen it did, and I set ' to work aL-am to pull her through, making mak-ing all the while for the Irish coast. "We sighted the coast at last and ! met a patml boat which offered to pilot us into Bantry bay, but she had no lights I and we had none, and I kept losing her . in the dark. Then came along the Scotch ' boat Flying Fox, and there at last we I got help. Six seamen came along and ; I got the steering gear fixed and we got i to Castletown, where we lay for six days, and at last I got her into Cardiff." Fergusson, wdio gets SIL'.osjO, lives in San Francisco. Welch and Smith, who get $fou0 each, are pure Americans. They expressed their intention of adopting adopt-ing Sir Samuel Evans's suggestion and putting at least a part of their reward into the British war loan. New York Times. |