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Show Gives a Tfiriffira Narrative of His Capture arid .Escape American Naval Officer Tells of Experiences After Being Taken Prisoner by .Hun Submarine; Subma-rine; Finally Gains His Liberty. LOXDOX, Oct. 30. (Correspondence (Correspond-ence of the Associated Press.) Hero is tho story of Lieutenant E. V. Isaacs of the United States navy, watch officer of the American transport President Lincoln, when that Vessel waa torpedoed in the Atlantic on Alay 31 last. He was captured by the German submarine which sunk the ship. When off the Scandinavian coast he attempted to swim, ashore, but was caught. On his way to a prison camp in Germany he- jumped from a train, but was recaptured. Jl0 escaped from i the prison and swam across the Bhine river to safety in Switzerland. Tho story has been told briefly in the Associated Press dispatches, but its details de-tails are so filled with the spirit of adventure ad-venture as to be well worth the telling. When the President Lincoln wont to tho bottom of the ocean Lieutenant Isaacs, who is from Cresco, Iowa, climbed upon a raft. Soon afterward the submarine emerged, and her commander com-mander demanded the captain of the President Lincoln as prisoner. The survivors sur-vivors told him they believed tho captain cap-tain had gone down with the ship, not that they -were aware of that, but to save, if possible, the captain being taken prisoner. Taken, Aboard Submarine. While this was going on, Lieutenant Isaacs said, he lay on the raft with his arms under him to hide the officer's stripes on hia uniform, but without success, suc-cess, and ho was ordered aboard the submarine. It was. the U-90, and her commander. Captain Remy, had resided in the United States and England and spoke English fluently. " Apparently Remy had been affected by our civilization," said the lieutenant, lieuten-ant, "as be treated mc pleasantly while inquiring as to the whereabouts of the skipper of the Lincoln. 1 was told that I would tell him where he could find our captain or go to Germany myself as a prisoner. I could not conform to his first command, and, of course, would not have had I been able to." The young officer said that he was ; given a good bunk on the submarine ; and four good meals daily, including meat, eggs and real coffee. The f ol-. lowing day as the submarine was cruis- ing about seeking new victims, she was sighted by two American destroyers. "While the destroyers were plunging toward us we were getting under water as rapidly as possible, and finally stopped at a depth of (50 meters," Lieutenant Lieu-tenant Isaacs tsaid. Crew Badly Scared. "When tho depth bombs began exploding ex-ploding every German would sing out to the captain that a destroyer was about so far away to starboard or port, as the case might have been. They listening devices. TheD would come a depth charge. "It is difficult to describe just the sensation, but it seemed to mo much like a dog shaking a Bat, and it was anything any-thing but pleasant to be the rat. With each explosion a look of horror would flash over the faces of the Germans, for they expected every moment that one of the charges would be fired a bit closer, and they knew their craft could not withstand it." Too many destroyers were in that area for comfort, so Remy headed for the Kiel canal the next night. When off the Scandinavian coast Lieutenant Isaacs said ho decided to attempt to swim shore when the submarine approached ap-proached territorial waters. With his life-belt on he was just slipping over the side shortly after midnight, when he was discovered by Remy himself and pulled aboard. Carefully Questioned. On arrival at Wilhclm shaven bo was kept three days on a submarine "moth-1 er" ship and three days in a land1 prison, carefully guarded and badly fed. During this time he was taken to the German battleship Kaiser II, the flagship flag-ship of the fleet, and questioned by a i staff officer. t "I finally told him that the United j States would send- so many men to I France that the battleliue" wouldn't hold them," said the lieutenant, "I was then taken to Karlsruhe and placed in a hotel room by myself the first day. Tho next day I was put into another room with eight French officers, it having hav-ing been learned in tho meantime that I spoke French. "Those rooms, I afterward learned, were known i as the ' listening rooms,1 and they were rightly named. The Frenchmen and I found three dictaphones dicta-phones and destroyed them. Tho next day was placed in a room with three Uri tisli officers, and i horn worn dieto. phones in lhat room." After a few days at Karlsruhe, tho lieutenant was started for a preliminary distributing camp at Yilliugen, Baden. In the railway carriage with him were Uvo guards.' lie was unaware of conditions con-ditions at tho Villingeu camp, aud decided de-cided to try to got away from the train if the slightest opportunity came. Jumps From the Train. ' 1 One of the gunrds seemed to be doling while the other was interested in something out of the other side of ! the carriage, when I Hove through the : c:i rriago window, " the officer said. "The train was moving more rapidly than T believed, for I received an awful aw-ful bump on the head and both of my knee? were cut on the iron tics of the parallel track. "I scrambled into the brush as beat T could. Very soon bullets were whistling whis-tling about mc as the train had been stopped and guards wcro on my t rail, t could not make speed in the condition I was in, ?o, to save my life. T held up my hands in token of surrender when : the guards were about seventy-five yards away. "When they came up to me (me of t hem we Iconic! mr with a blow with Ids rifle I was beaten and kii-kpi and knocked down se en or eight times before be-fore they finally loaded me back into tho train. ' Arri ing a I I he ramp I was swathed in paper bandages thev have very little rloth in Germany, ynu know. Hud it not been for food supplied Initio In-itio Ked Cross, J jn sure I would have i starved to death, but with that we fared very well, and within a month had regained my strength. Thero were about 150 Russian officers and seventy-five seventy-five American officers in the camp." Lieutenant Isaacs and other officers immediately began to lay plans for escape es-cape by collecting necessary articles, such as pieces of wire and rope and short boards with which to make a ladder if necessary. They also traded some of their food to a Kussian for a j pair of wise cutters he had smuggled into the camp. Three different times they had their escape plans completed, each-time with the connivance of a Russian, Rus-sian, and each time they had reason to believe tho Germans 'had been apprised aud they did not try. "Finally, we learned that they were fc. take all the Russians away on Octo- ber 7, and, working without the Russians, Rus-sians, wo planned to try again on the night of October 0," said the lieutenant. lieuten-ant. "Fifteen feet from our barred windows was a high barbed wiro fence, which turned inward at the top, much I the same as at our internment camps i in the States. Between the fence and our window was a ditch seven feet wide filled with scrapped barbed wire. We had almost severed the bnfs of the window in the room in which I was im- pnsniieu, using an improvjsea saw one of the officers had obtained from a Russian. "Two other officers with me were to use two tennis court markers, eighteen feet long, as a bridge from our window to the top of the barbed wire fence. The wooden markers, which we calculated would barely hold us when strapped together, to-gether, were to be brought into our room after the roll call at night. Attempt Is Successful. "We figured that soon after fhe attempt at-tempt the guards would be attracted from tho main gate, so three officers elected to try a dash there at the proper moment. Three others were to attempt to get through the fence with the wire cutters, while- two others planned to get over. We had fixed the electric light wires so that we could quicklv short-circuit short-circuit them. This was to be done, exactly ex-actly at 10:30 o'clock, when every man was to be ready to go. ! ' "I will tell the name of only one of the officers, as I do not know "the fate of the others. He was Corporal Harold I B. Willis of Boston, a member of the Lafayette escadrille. He was one of those who wore to dash through the gate, and he and I had a rendezvous two miles from camp. "When the lights wcro extinguished by tho short-circuiting, wo forced the bars as quietly as possible and ran out the two markers strapped together, and darkened with shoe blacking as much as possible in tho short timo we had. There was no moon, but the sky was clear. ' "One of the window bars stuck, and we make considerable noiso forcing it, but it didn't take us long to start the risky trip to the top of tho fence. I got outside, all right, but there were guards both to my right aud left. There were no protecting trees., so I ran as fast as I could with bullets whistling about me. "I met Willis at the rendezvous and we set out southwest. We traveled at night, slept in the day and lived on raw vegetables we took from gardens. At last we reached the Rhine at a point between Schaffhauscu aud Basle. Safety Finally Reached. "We found that at every place where wo might, approach the bank it was thoroughly guarded. W'o decided thcu to find a creek, if possible, and wade down it until we struck the Rhine. The, current in the one we found was very swift and the water cold. Willis had just taken off most of his clothes for the pluuge into the Rhine, when ho was swept away by the current, which at that point moved 'about twelve kilometers kilo-meters an hour. "It was an awful trip in the cold water, wa-ter, and I waa about ready to give up at one time. I turned on my back to float as long as possible. It seemed that it was i m possible to bring that bank any closer with my waning strength. Finally I was fortunate enough to be caught in an eddy that swept me to the shore. ' "When I was able to walk, I found a farmhouse ami was warmly welcomed by the Swiss peasants. I told them of Willis and asked them to send someone down the bank to look for him. A short distance from tho road tho peasant nu?t one of his neighbors who had come to look for mc. Willis had landed much the same as I had, was treated as 1 had been hv another peasant, and had sent a messenger for me just as I had for him. Willis went to France, and I as sume has joined his command by this time." t |