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Show - - r -C; v e - : --'s? Thrilling Battles With U- C& : tiT TTCC V ztoj Revealed by Records ; --w f w "SA r ' 4 Bv RALPH n painf f "aw. A5T'NL. , to ram him. But no shock was felt when the iwPyA h , . KVr. - ship passed over the spot, so In all probability the A RE American armed merchant ship t ' s JSs- 3 " , ., t , nl,,-i, tn mnp A really sinking any German submarine ? 1 ubm!,.r!"?, WHS aWe t0 dlVe deCP en"g ' P CM " yU Ca J l',eUeVe the wa'el:slde s There was precious little room to spare in this Kil rumors and fQ, t, yarns, one 0f the e . .- adven tn-e, but it was surpassed by a liner, for- r-r devIUsh marauders ,s rammed or blown ffl'vorite gh, among AtUintic pUsrims, now I iXA "p oa ,eve'-y vo-e across the Atlanti- C- ' rryy, cargoes to1 the olUeg. A bUlnket of fog tm1 T'e anV - covered the sea in the early morning. It lifted a KU seek haven and pound the bar with ' j trifle and a very much surprised submarine popped hairy fists strong liquors magnify the , lip dead ahead of the lunging prow. She let fly a tales, and one concludes that the kals- . . , .m. eifln with- to ram him. But no shock was felt when the ship passed over the spot, so in all probability the submarine was able to dive deep enough to escape being hit." There was precious little room to spare in this adventure, but it was surpassed by a liner, formerly for-merly a favorite ship among Atlantic pilgrims, now carrying cargoes to the allies. A blanket of fog covered the sea in the early morning. It lifted a trifle, and a very much surprised submarine popped up dead ahead of the lunging prow. She let fly a torpedo in a wild flurry, at the steamer's side without with-out exploding. A moment later the submarine itself went bumping and scraping along the other side of the vessel, whose officers, sailors, and gunners gun-ners stared straight down at it and uttered the deep and hearty curses of the sea. They would have swapped their souls for a few bombs to drop In remembrance. Grimy stokers poked their heads through the open ports and spat at the conning tower, or passionately scrambled for lumps of coal and slice bars to heave at the blankety-blank thing. Then the fog swallowed it up and the incident was closed. For hard fighting and the dogged courage that we rightly ascribe to the men of the American navy, the story of the Moreni and Chief Petty Officer Offi-cer Andrew Copassaki, commanding the armed guard, is one of those which shines undimmed in defeat. German sailors cheered him and his men from the deck of a submarine when he finished with his ship on fire and a cargo of gasoline about to blow him to kingdom come. He was made a warrant war-rant officer for devotion to duty and determination to fight as long as she floated. A summary of his report to the navy department was given out shortly short-ly after it was received. For wanton brutality there is the report of the loss of the American schooner Childe Harold off the French coast. Unadorned, the episode is thus described : "At daybreak an object reported by the mate was believed to be the square sails of a ship hull down. The glasses showed It to be the superstructure superstruc-ture of a submarine one mile away.. (The Childe Harold was unarmed.) The submarine opened fire, and the shells ripped through the schooner's hull and sails. The master ordered the crew into the motorlaunch and lowered away. This was plainly visible to the submarine, which had come much nearer. She continued to fire, however, evidently evi-dently at the boat in the water, which escaped being be-ing hit. The captain and his crew were ordered aboard the submarine and noticed that the cap ribbons of (he sailors bore the letter 'U-19' and 'U-17.' Two of the officers spoke excellent English, and Captain Byrne of the schooner Informed them that the firing was totally unnecessary and that he har" not expected such dastardly treatment from any white men. "The conversation developed the fact that the commander of the submarine knew the date of sailing sail-ing of the Childe Harold from an American port and was on the lookout for her. He had also received re-ceived information of the departure of the four-master four-master Alicia B. Crosby and the three-master A. V. Sherman on the same date, all three vessels having hav-ing passed out to sea together. He wanted to know where the other schooners were. According to his schedule they should have shown up by this time. "The Germans looted the Childe Harold and seemed very hungry. They had only coffee and dry bread for breakfast aboard the submarine. After fetching all the stores In the launch, they put the captain and his crew in the boat again, which was stove and half full of water. The schooner was set on fire. Her people were rescued res-cued by a steamer. Captain Byrne is anxious to try It again." A robust American shipmaster, tills skipper of the Childe Harold, who told the Germans to their faces what he thought of them and was eager to have another lling at it ! 4 By RALPH D. PAINE. 4 RE American armed merchant ships really sinking any German submarines? If you care to believe the waterside rumors and fo'castle yarns, one of these devilish marauders is rammed or blown fctj UP on every voyage across the Atlantlc-I Atlantlc-I n saIoons where merchant seamen Cswy? seek haven and pound the bar with (pN hairy fists strong liquors magnify the tales, and one concludes that the kaiser's kais-er's undersea fleet must be wiped out by now. The navy's records are less fanciful, strictly adhering to the motto of the man from Missouri. Here is the account of an action fought by a eargo steamer which leaves no room for doubt that one very busy U-boat was suddenly removed from the active list of the imperial German navy. It is advisable to omit the name of the chief boatswain's boat-swain's mnte who commanded the gun crews. He was promoted to warrant rank as a reward for the feat and is now stationed ashore, but he may go to sea again in charge of another lot of gunners, gun-ners, and if he should be taken prisoner the enemy would not love him for what he did to a missing submarine. In his official report he states: "Weather hazy. Saw a submarine firing on a topsail schooner, which shortly after blew up. Changed course to bring the submarine on our starboard beam about 5,000 yards distant and lost sight of her in haze. Continued on this course for two hours and then resumed our original course. At 2 :55 p. m. the submarine appeared out of the haze at 2,500 yards on our starboard beam. She immediately opened fire. We changed course to bring her three points on the starboard quarter and returned the fire. "The engagement lasted 35 minutes, during which time the submarine fired about 40 shots, scoring one hit under our port counter a foot from the water, and causing a leak. We fired 27 shots. The twenty-sixth shot was seen' to hit her just forward of the forward gun, and a cloud of flame ' and dark gray smoke burst from the hatches. The crew of the submarine left the gun and ran aft. Almost instantly the submarine sank, bow first, the stern lifting high out of the water, so that the propellers could be seen revolving. The steamer was leaking and temporary repairs were made by the crew." When the ship reached her foreign port of destination des-tination and reported the victory an official inquiry in-quiry was ordered by the French government. A naval lieutenant conducted it with great care and ' confirmed the verdict of the American gunners. The steamer fought with the American flag flying, he stated in his written opinion, firing 27 shots in half an hour. The distance Increased about 100 meters for each shot. The twenty-sixth shot exploded, ex-ploded, producing a thick black smoke, which was visible to all on shipboard. Such an explosion must have been produced in the submarine itself. He said, in summing up the evidence : "The result of the inquiry is that the fight has been very well conducted and that the men have shown a very fine spirit, doing honor to the American Amer-ican navy. The conclusion may be drawn that the submarine was hit and probably sunk." This was first-class shooting, the submarine steadily drawing away until when struck she was 5,000 yards, and more, or three land miles from the steamer. Binoculars and telescope sights enabled en-abled the gunners to distinguish her with clearness clear-ness and to note the effects of the shell which ended her wretched career. It was her commander's command-er's intention to move beyond range and continue the action on the chance that he had the bigger guns, but he miscalculated, and paid the price. It seemed a cruel slant of fortune that this American steamer, which so brilliantly bagged a submarine, should have accidentally burned at sea on her next voyage. There was no time to stretch hose or muster the crew. Ablaze in an Instant, she was one vast furnace while the men raced for the boats with death at their heels. All hands got away, including the navy gunners, and their cruise in open boats was made without severe suffering. It was all in the day's work. Very similar to this successful encounter was the adventure of the steamer Silver Shell. In this instance also the French ministry of marine added Its opinion that the submarine had probably been hit and sunk. The chief gunner won promotion shortly after -this statement was issued by Secretary Secre-tary Daniels : "William J. Clark of New York, chief turret captain cap-tain and commander of the naval gun crew of the Silver Shell, is deserving of promotion, which we are now considering. All the other members of the crew, as well, and what they have (hmc, deserve great credit and distinction. The chief turret captain cap-tain Is a very capable man. lie is an enlisted man who has seen nearly 12 years of service in the navy and has won successive promotions by proven cnpiicily. For his work he deserves the very best that can be done for him." Here was a man tit and ready for his job, and In- knew how to put his own spirit and experience into the team play of his gunners. An American naval officer of high rank detailed on special duty at a French post conducted an inquiry and found pleasure In writing to Washington that "the master mas-ter of the Silver Shell was particularly enthusiast ie over the splendid work of the I arret captain and the entire naval gun crew; he also stutes that his whole crew displayed a most commendable spirit during the battle." This is precisely as it should be, bluejackets and merchant seamen standing together, fighting the enemy as one Intrepid American crew, and the Stars and Stripes hoisted at the first shot by order of the skipper. Chief Gunner Clark had the honor to report to the navy department : "As the submarine displayed no flag and was coming nearer, we fired a shot. The submarine, which was then about 7,000 yards away, replied immediately with what seemed to me, on account of the range, a six-Inch gun. Her first shot fell amidships about 100 yards short. We changed our course due west, increasing speed. The submarine sub-marine followed us, keeping up fire. The fight lasted from 6 o'clock until about 7:30 p. m. We fired 25 shots. The submarine fired over 30, Including In-cluding some shrapnel toward the end, which exploded ex-ploded astern of our ship too high to do any damage. dam-age. "Our last two shells seem to have hit the submarine sub-marine in the forward part. A few seconds later her bow jumped up, and she went down, stern upward at an angle of about 45 degrees. The submarine sub-marine did not come up again, and'I believe it was sunk then and there. No damage was done to our ship, and there were no casualties." The steamer was still within effective range of the big guns of the submarine, which could have had no other reason than a sudden attack of acute illness for vanishing in this abrupt manner. It seems fairly conclusive that a shell blew her partly part-ly out of water, and then she went lunging and foundering into the depths. The steamer did not stop to search for traces of the disaster, but sensibly sen-sibly continued along on her course. Tankers filled with millions of gallons of gasoline do not linger in the war zone. The American passenger liners, maintaining their service almost as regularly as in time of peace, would naturally run the gantlet much often-er often-er than the same number of cargo boats. They sail on an express schedule and spend little time in port. It is no secret that they are fast and well armed, able to whip a submarine in a fight with guns. The deadly torpedo is another matter, but speed has so far been a saving factor. It is what the gunners on board call "the sporty life," nor can it be recommended to people with nervous systems sys-tems as a restful vocation. For example, one of these liners, during the first six months of war, made only one perfectly tame and routine voyage. During all ner other trips across there were fights with submarines or escapes from torpedoes. Extracts from the navy department's reports of these steamers may be chosen almost at random as interesting reading with a thrill in it. These are fair samples of what it means to make the Atlantic voyage, which is no longer a commonplace, common-place, soothing "ocean ferry." "The lookout in The lower crow's nest, n coxswain cox-swain of the naval guard, picked up an oil slick ahead, which veered off to port at right angles to the ship's course. Following the slick, which was about the width of a ship, he suddenly saw the periscope of a submarine appear at the end of it, about one foot out of the water. lie Instantly sung out, 'Periscope,' and the next moment, 'Torpedo,' 'Tor-pedo,' for the submarine had been exposed scarcely more than a second when she fired a torpedo. The enemy was then about 900 yards from the ship and three-fourths point forward of the beam. "The torpedo was running straight, but apparently appar-ently having trouble In maintaining Its depth, for when about 200 yards off I saw a streak, then at a depth of about five feet. It dived and passed under the ship about 30 feet from the stern. Soon after heading away from the submarine we picked up an abandoned lifeboat two points off the starboard star-board bow. The submarine had apparently been lying near the life boat, anil on seeing us approach had beaded off to assume a position for attack on our port side, probably expecting us to pick up the lifeboat and thus miss seeing him. Fortunately, however, the oil slick was sighted first. "The old hands among (he gunners paid no attention at-tention to the torpedo, which was coming right for them, but made every effort to get the guns on the target, which was the submarine's periscope." What might be called a close shave befell another anoth-er steamer on the return voyage. "There were several other ships in the vicinity," runs the report, "including two tankers and a destroyer de-stroyer and'iwo or three tramps. Suddenly a periscope peri-scope was sighted a quarter of a mile away, showing show-ing up plainly in the streak of moonlight on the water. The submarine seemed to be just coming up and hud probably misjudged the speed of the steamer, having seen her some time earlier. .Before .Be-fore a torpedo could be fired or the guns manned, the steamer was right on top of the submarine, whirl) submerged. The chief officer threw the helm hard over and went straight for lihn, hoping |