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Show SHIPS ENGINEER DEFEATS U-BOAT: Toiling frantically to replace a broken part In the starboard engine, while shells from a pursuing suma-rlno suma-rlno fell ever closer and closer to their ship and her cargo of gas tanks, the engineers and firemen of an American "poison ship" recently demonstrated once moro that the spirit animating tho merchant marine Is the same spirit spir-it that supports the men who, in France, are beating down the enemy in the face of the concentrated scientific scien-tific energy of destruction of the most soulless nation In the world. Perilous onough was tho trip without with-out the addition of the submarine menace. Tho ship was loaded with huge steel drums, filled with onough of the most deadly gas ever made to wipe out wholo divisions of the enemy. ene-my. An accident that released "even a breath of the fumes might mean a horrible death for all on board. And a shell or a torpedo the mind shrinks from the possibilities. So all were alort. and for 10 days all went well. Every day there was the mask drill, when each member of the crew practiced slinging the bag-over bag-over the shoulder, poking It under tho chin, snapping the "clothespin" closing clos-ing the nostrils, and placing the breathing piece 'between tho teeth. On tho tenth day the starboard engines en-gines stalled and the poison ship fell behind. And at the end of the day a submarine. Tho U-boat-appeared far astern, but the poison ship was limping along at 6 or 7 knots, and the enemy rapidly gained. A wirelesswas sent for aid, and the engine crew, notified of the menace, redoubled its efforts. Realizing Realiz-ing that a shell might at any moment como crashing through the hull, releasing re-leasing the fumes of death, which would torture them exquisitely for the oternity before the sea swallowed their suffering, nevertheless these men never nev-er dreamed of bolting. Like their brothers in the trenches, they stuck to their posts, hammering, twisting, tightonIng,with the lives of the entire en-tire ship's crow depending on their efforts. ef-forts. Meanwhile the submarine was gaining. gain-ing. Her first shells had fallen short, but her range was longer than that of the single ship's gun, and projectiles wore, falling over nearer tho poison ship. An answer had como to their radio call, saying that a destroyer was rushing to the rescue; so the crow stood by, praying that no German shell , should puncture those drums of death. And while they prayed the men below be-low had done their work. The broken part was replaced, the engines throbbed throb-bed once more on tho starboard side in accompaniment to those on tho lee, and the poison ship gathered speed, struck a gait of 10, 11, 12 knots. And the shells from the U-boat, which had reached within 20 yards, began to splash farther and farther astern; but very 'slowly did they recede, and it was 15 minutes before the ship was well out of range. Then camo the dostroyer, and the submarine sought safety under the surface. |