Show 6 adventurers CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF YOURS E L F 1 wild night afloat ELLO EVERYBODY fl you know sometimes old lady adventure puts you through the paces in a second or two and then lets up on you vou ive told you boys and girls a couple of yarns at least that it last more than five or six seconds dian didn at the most 13 but ut there are arc also times when the old girl with the thrill bag seems to take delight in teasing her victims as a cat would tease a mouse tossing one bit of hard luck after another at them until she has them worn down and ready to quit floyd smith of chicago could tell you a yarn like that A of terror for hours on end and tale as a matter of fact floyd fl will teu tell you that story for weve got him here with us at the adventurers campfire tonight and hes all ready to go its a story of the world war and incidentally floyd wants me to announce that if any of the three fellows who went vyris through it with arsne him 11 should read this story s well he sure hopes drop him a line the scene of this yarn is brest france where floyd was attached to the U S naval air station he was one of a crew of four on a ed bolt boat the type of craft that is is known as a gig in the navy and it was one day in august 1918 that the gig and its crew was sent out for an all night battle with old lady adventure men ordered taken on off pensacola it was about eight in the evening when the officer of the day brought their orders the U S S pensacola had weighed anchor a short tune time before and was putting out to sea aboard her was a 15 man detail from the air air station which had been helping to unload the ship they were to have been taken off before the pensacola sailed but tle the orders had bad been mixed up and there they were getting a ride they were never intended to have the gigs orders were to catch the pensacola and take the men off says floyd we took out after the ship which was already in the narrow channel that leads from the bay to the open sea in about 10 minutes we were a hundred yards astern of the pensacola when suddenly our motor quit well it goes without saying that we did not catch the pensacola As luck would have it the tide was going out and it swept us out to sea the water out there was too deep for the anchor line so they kept right light on drifting it was growing dark by that time so no one ashore taw saw their predicament with no means to stop the boat from driffin drifting g 1 we were a hundred yards astern of the pensacola when suddenly our motor quit those four lads worked frantically trying to get the motor started again but they only made matters worse they ran the batter down and then they were left without lights the gig drifts slowly out to sea by this time says floyd it was pitch dark and it had started to rain there was nothing to do but drift so we drifted and under that casual statement there lies a world of terror those four lads every one of them knew what it meant to drift out to sea it if they were lucky they might be picked up by a passing steamer but on the other hand it was au all too easy to drift unsighted for days on end and finally perish of thirst and exposure we drifted until about 2 a ma m 11 floyd says and then the sea began to get rough and we really had something to worry about for there were mine fields all about the entrance of the harbor and we f figured we had drifted into them the mines were moored 12 feet below the surface but with the high swells bobbing us up and down we stood a good chance of hitting one of them we be began gan holding our breaths about an hour later they sighted a blinker ligha and that was the signal for more panic it was too 00 oo high to be on a ship sa says Ys floyd so it must have 7 been on a cliff were we going to be washed against this cliff cliffy we all prepared for the worst we put on life breser preservers vers and let out the anchor but the anchor hold the boat still drifted alter after a while we had drifted to a place where we could see lights in the distance could it be t true rue that we were in in the channel heading back toward brest boat drifts back to starting point the boat had arif drifted ted right back and just where they were to where it had started lads still had the worst wor of their ad luck ck sure it was but those them the venture to back on shore someone had spotted go through lk understand blinker on the cliff was signaling but in a c ode they whit we would fire on us says floyd they open SS half until we were searchlights on us were afraid of they kept vessel and a then we sa w a gwilt moving 1 ST channel way W through tt the hundred yards ri of I 1 coming in our direction when it got 1 with l a sy ta beamed si K torpedo boat its searchlight us I 1 could see that it was a on usand it came straight for us and with no intention of si ahead straight at them it came full speed force that spun sto aping it just grazed the tern of the boat but with a rsm KS overboard it around arks and almost sr knocked its four occupants it B by the time we TO h sr id come to our senses another say ram s floyd at K us all li had turned and was coiling back to tal ke four at the top of our lungs americans our ot of us began yelling americans stoa within a few feet of f the gig gand and the boat t came on it came aside the tb boys kept right on then it turned sharply suddenly french torpedo boat came lorac yelling americans then from the the answer oui oui of anva and they floyd says sa down we told them our engine had broken they n y tow ed us back said mid they thou thought we were a gern german ian submarine we all an agreed B it was one a gain again to ashore our station and when we were night we would long remember bembe mem be by western new shaper union |