Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-03-24 | Page 13 | Statement Made by Captain of the Illinois

STATEMENT MADE BY CAPTAIN OF THE ILLINOIS SOUTHAMPTON, via London. March 23, f : 4 5 p. m. Thirty-four survivors of the American tank steamer Illinois, which was sunk Sunday, March 18, twenty miles north of Alderney, by a German submarine, subma-rine, arrived here today. Of the party sixteen are Americans, the others being Swedes and Spaniards. Captain H. Iver-son Iver-son made the following statement: We sailed on March 16. At 7H5 a, m. on the ISth we sighted a submarine sub-marine bearing down upon us from the southwest from a distance of approximately ap-proximately three miles. The submarine sub-marine submerged and approached. About ten minutes later, the distance then from us being about two miles, the submarine opened Are. Immediately Immedi-ately after backing for two minutes our vessel was stopped by the engineer engi-neer on watch. The first shot went over our aerial and the second brought it down. The firing continued rapidly until the boats were well clear of the ship's side, when the shooting ceased. The submarine then came close by alongside the lifeboats and ordered No. 1 boat to come alongside the submarine. sub-marine. Five of Our men were ordered or-dered aboard his boat and he transferred trans-ferred five of his crew to the lifeboat, life-boat, which was then pulled to the Illinois. These men then placed seven-minute bombs alongside the ship and in the engine room, which exploded in due course. Our five men were taken off the submarine and I asked the commander com-mander if he would tow us toward land. He replied: "I have no time." We then proceeded under sa il and oars for Alderney, and ten miles from It we were picked up and taken In tow by two motor-boats that had observed ob-served us and came to our assistance. The submarine commander took no measures for the safety of the crew and continued shelling until they were in their boats. The Illinois did not try lp escape or resist. One man was Injured by shell fire. The submarine had no flag showing when first observed. ob-served. It was six and one-half hours after shelling the Illinois when the crew reached the harbor.