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Show "TELLSSTOHYOF f SUE OF THE BELGIAN PRINCE One of the Three Survivors of Crew Accuses U-Boat Captain of Deliberate Deliber-ate Murder. By International News Service. i WASHINGTON. Oct. 7. The complete story of the murder of the crew of the British steamer Belgian Prince by a German Ger-man submarine commander, who took them on the deck of his vessel and then submersed, living them to drown, was told officially today for the first time. The narrative of William Snell, colored d cook of the steamer, as taken down ver-tatlm ver-tatlm by an officer of the American navy, was mads public by the navy department. de-partment. Snell was one of the three survivors of the ill-fated crew. Snell tells the story in his own words i and the navy department lets it go at that. No comment, no editing can make more horrible the story of this slaughter of the sea in which more than a score of innocent men. following their trade to make en honest living, were left to sink to death. Cook's Story. s This ia Snell's story: k "About 8 o'clock p. m., July 31, T heard an explosion, did not know whether it was a torpedo or a bomb and I ran to my life boat, the boats having been lowered low-ered partly from their davits. AfLer the crew boarded lifeboats they were lowered into the water, and we rowed from the phlp about fifty yards, when the submarine sub-marine came to the surface about 100 yards from us and fired at the wireless K - on board the Relglan Prince and tore it down. Then she came slowly between our three boats, the fourth lifeboat having hav-ing been blown to pieces when the explosion explo-sion occurred, leaving the captain's boat on the port side of the submarine and the other two boats on the starboard side and asked for the captain. The captain said : 'Here I am.' The captain was taken into the conning tower of the ship and asked for his papers and they were delivered up to the commander of the submarine. Hands Ordered Up. "The commander of the submarine said: 'Is there any gunners over there?' and our officer replied, 'No. eir; they got killed.' The commander of the submarine said : 'TT there is no gunners aboard there bring your boats alongside,' and as we got alongside he safd, 'All hand on deck.' When we got on deck he said, 'Hands up.' Then he lined us up in single rank from the bow of the vessel as far afl as the gun which was on board her Kj forward of the conning tower and which appeared to be a. six-inch gun. ,-''There were two men of the subma- rine's crew on top of the conning tower with guns of a large hore in their hands which they kept trained on us. Seven withers of the German crew stood abreast our line on the starboard of the ship, armed with automatic revolvers guarding us. The commander then commanded us to take off our life belts and throw them on deck, which we did. As the lifebelts were dropped the commander picked them k up and threw them overboard. Saved His Lifebelt. "When I threw my belt down 1 shoved if ahead on the deck with my foot and finally stood on It. As he walked along the line and went and pulled the plug out of our lifeboats I picked up mv belt quickly and thrust It under a bfg'loose ..oilskin which T was wearing at the time, . hugging it close to my breast with my arms. "The commander went to the conning lower and four Germans came on deck and Rot in our captain's boat, w.hich was ' lying on the port side of the submarine, and the submarine backed a little, then 5 teamed ahead and rammed and smashed one of our iToats which had been lying t, on the starboard bow and had been cast off from the submarine a few moments before she backed. "The four men who had patten Into our captain's boa t rowed alongside the Belgian Bel-gian Prince. The submarine then steamed ahead as near as T r-an gruess about nini knots per hour, leaving her four men In our captain's boat alongside the Belgian Prince, all of up. except our captain, being huddled uptogether on her forward deck. Water Begins to Rise. "She steamed thus about one hour and a half, at which time- I noticed that the wa t e r wa s rising slowly on the forward deck and It came up on my feet. T a !so noticed some little time before this te 'onnlng tower bad been closed, v "The water continued to rise around my ankles and when the water got sin Inches up on my leers I pulled my lifebelt out quickly, threw it over my shoulders and jumped overboard. The other men did not seem to know what was going to happen. Some of them were saying, 'I wonder if they are going to drown us," etc. About ten seconds after I jumped I heard a suction as of a vessel sinking and the submarine had submerged entirely, en-tirely, . leaving the crew of the Belgian Prince struggling in the water. "I commenced to swim towards the Belgian Prince, which I could see faintly In the distance, it not being very dark in this latitude at this time of night. I am a good swimmer and swam practically all night on my back and In other positions. One of our crew who was without a lifebelt, life-belt, I don't know .bis name, kept about five yards from me for about half an hour after the submarine submerged. This man finally became exhausted and sank. I heard numerous other cries for help from lour men, but could not see them. Later I heard a whirring noise, something like an aeroplane, and sine: led the odor of gasoline, which I thought was the submarine sub-marine returning towards the Belgian Prince to pick up her four men. When day broke there were lots of dead bodies of my old shipmates floating around me. Then, about 5 o'clock, as near as I can judge, I made out the Belgian Prince and four men coming over her side. They had been lowering some stuff off the Belgian Prince Into the boat alongside. 1 cried out, "Help. Help!" but they paid no attention at-tention to me. At this time the submarine subma-rine came to the surface about fifty yards from the Belgian Prince and the four men from the Belgian Prince approached the submarine in their boat and hoisted some stuff out of the row boat and put on board the submarine and about ten minutes afterward she submerged, leaving leav-ing one man in the lifeboat, the other three having gone on board the submersible. sub-mersible. Vessel Blows Up. "As the submarine submerged I heard a great explosion, and the Belgian Prince broke In two and sank. 1 saw a vessel approaching from a far distance and she gradually approached me. She came within with-in a hundred yards of me. close to where the Belgian Prince had sunk. She passed me, proceeded some little distance, turned around and came back and picked mo up, at which time I was just commencing lo lose consciousness. "It a.p pears that the man whom I mentioned men-tioned as bavins; been left in the rowhoat when the submarine submerged was picked up by the British patrol boat after 1 became unconscious, also tJie chief engineer engi-neer of the Belgian Prince, who had gotten got-ten hold of a log after the submarine rirst submerged, and t bus saved his life, was picked up. We were taken by the British patrol boat to Londonderry, Ireland." |